Ministers outline conditions for financing climate efforts

Industrialised nations' contributions to financing climate change mitigation and adaptation measures in developing countries after 2012 should depend on their ability to pay and how much CO2 they emit, EU finance ministers said on Tuesday.

This is the first time EU governments have suggested how financial contributions should be judged. Funding could come from "usual or new sources", according to a council resolution adopted on Tuesday. The resolution will feed into the next meeting of EU leaders in Brussels on 18-19 June (EE 20/03/09 http://www.endseurope.com/20958).

"Global instruments addressing emissions in international aviation and maritime transport would be welcome," the ministers said. Only the European Commission and environment ministers, not finance ministers, had backed this to date (EE 14/01/09 http://www.endseurope.com/20370 and EE 03/03/09 http://www.endseurope.com/20810).

The ministers said raising the money to cut emissions in developing countries was a significant challenge. But "effectively governing and channelling the money towards climate activities and action is an even greater challenge," they added. UN climate chief Yvo de Boer has also singled out governance as a crucial issue (EE 29/04/09 http://www.endseurope.com/21234).

Financial support for mitigation measures in developing countries should be "fully recognised" and "scaled up over time" depending, among other things, on the level of ambition in Copenhagen, the ministers said.

The validation by an "international high-level body" of low-carbon development strategies in developing nations (EE 14/01/09 http://www.endseurope.com/20370) could "facilitate access" to support mechanisms and even be accepted by all institutional bodies as "recommended entry criteria" for support, the ministers suggest.

The allocation of funds should be based on a performance-based system, "incentivising the promotion of actions which maximise climate value for money", according to the council resolution.

A new support mechanism including "sectoral crediting and trading" should be developed to help emerging economies make a stronger contribution to climate mitigation, the ministers added. They also backed proposals for reforming the UN's clean development mechanism (CDM) put forward by the European Commission (EE 28/01/09 http://www.endseurope.com/20499) and think tanks such as the Centre for European Policy Studies (EE 07/05/09 http://www.endseurope.com/21294).

Follow-up: Council of Ministers http://consilium.europa.eu/showPage.aspx?lang=EN&id=1 plus

ministerial resolution http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ecofin/108391.pdf,

meeting agenda http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ecofin/108345.pdf

and background note http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ecofin/108347.pdf.

See also WWF press release

http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/policy/wwf_europe_environment/?166321/Time-for-financial-commitment-to-poorer-countries-on-climate-change

and UNEP report on financing a global climate deal http://www.unepfi.org/fileadmin/documents/FinancingGlobalDeal.pdf.

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