Adapt And Manage
No commentsAsked to comment on when he thinks the Board would begin disbursing moneys from the fund, as most developing nations have been wishing, the UNFCCC secretary declined to say exactly when the disbursement would start, but stressed that this would take some time, and it was left to the Board to decide.
The squabbling over who should manage the climate change adaptation fund has now been settled, with the decision to allow its management to rest with a special Board comprising of donor nations. Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, said the adaptation fund would be managed and disbursed by the Board, which will take decisions on how to manage the fund. This is contrary to earlier reports circulated at the summit that donors have favoured the World Bank in helming the fund’s management process.
Providing journalists with a status report of the summit on Wednesday, Mr. de Boer, who was responding to concerns over the management of the adaptation fund, said the special Board that has been working since the Bali summit has the authority to not only manage the fund but to take decisions on how it should be used, and whether someone else should manage it.
Commenting on the composition of the Board, Mr. de Boer said that it is made up of representatives from countries that are donors to the fund.
Asked to comment on when he thinks the Board would begin disbursing moneys from the fund, as most developing nations have been wishing, the UNFCCC secretary declined to say exactly when the disbursement would start, but stressed that this would take some time, and it was left to the Board to decide.
De Boer added that despite the prevailing situation concerning the funds, most developing nations were not waiting for developed nations or donors to make available funding before going ahead with tackling issues related to climate change.
“Most developing nations are taking actions on their own to deal with climate change, but what they have made clear to us is the need to make available finances, and build up their capacity,” he said.
Earlier this week, news coming out of the summit pointed to the fact that most developing nations have outright opposed attempts by donor nations to entrust the management of the adaptation fund to the World Bank.
Some criticised the World Bank’s role in managing the fund citing different reasons but, an executive of the bank, Allan Miller, responding to the accusations against the bank, said it has a sound financial policy that qualifies it to properly manage the fund.
At a news conference earlier this week, Miller told journalists that the bank has, over the years, managed very well the AIDS funds, which have been entrusted to it by donors, too.
The climate change adaptation fund was established to finance concrete adaptation programmes and projects in developing nations that are parties to the Kyoto Protocol, as a way to help them with issues of climate change in their respective countries.
