Africa Seeks $30bn To Remedy Effect

By: Michael Simire on December 17th, 2009

By Michael Simire

The Africa Group at the ongoing climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark has tabled an initial demand of $30 billion to tackle damages done to the environment across the globe by climate change. The group has further recommended that 40 per cent of this money be allocated to Africa where many poor countries are adversely affected by the effects of climate change.

It has also been suggested by the group that the start-up funding, which would span three years from 2010-2012, should be a yearly release of $10 billion.

The money will be used to address urgent adaptation and mitigation tasks such as deforestation. It will also be used to prepare plans for future programmes to address the impact of climate chage.

Speaking on Wednesday on behalf of the group, Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi, suggested that the funding should be put in a trust fund to be administered by a board of trustees composed of an equal number of donor and recipient countries.

While requesting that 40 per cent of the fund be earmarked for Africa and administered by the Africa Development Bank, Zenawi sought the establishment of a committee of experts to work out necessary details on how to administer the fund.

On long-term financing, he proposed that this should start by 2013 to reach up to $50 billion per annum by 2015 and $100 billion per annum by 2020.

He said, “No less that 50 per cent of the fund should be allocated for adaptation to vulnerable and poor countries and regions such as Africa and the small island states.”

He added that the facility should be financed through reliable financing mechanisms such as taxes.

In a related development, the Group of 77 Nations and China declared that a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol needed to be established beyond 2012 as the basis for comparable emission reduction commitments among all developed country parties.

Dr. Nafie Ali Nafie, Head of the Sudanese delegation, who also spoke on behalf of the group, said, “We will oppose an agreement in Copenhagen which, in anyway, results in the Kyoto protocol being superseded or made redundant. The second commitment period under the protocol is a minimum requirement for the group, without which agreement in Copenhagen will not be possible.”

Nafie added that the group supported the bottom-up and party-driven process, adding that it allowed a balanced consideration of issues and enabled all parties to participate and bring in their interests and concerns regarding the expected outcome of Copenhagen .

Meanwhile, as part of efforts to tackle environmental devastation arising from climate change, the Delta State Government on Wednesday joined forces with the United Nations at the Convention.

At a brief ceremony, Delta state officials, led by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the latter’s Territorial Approach to Climate Change (TACC) initiative. The TACC is designed to assist developing sub-national governments to assess and manage the physical and socio-economic impact of climate change. By becoming part of the UNDP TACC programme, Delta will deepen its capacity to regulate environmental issues, as well as to take advantage of many new sources of environmental funds to implement climate change responses.

Governor Uduaghan signed on behalf of the state government, while Mr. Olav Kjorven, UN Assistant Secretary General and Director Bureau of Development Policy, UNDP, New York, signed on behalf of the world body.

Speaking shortly after the signing ceremony, Uduaghan described the partnership with the UNDP as a milestone which he said would assist the state government develop capacity to assess the level of environmental damage caused by oil pollution and rising water level.

He said that Delta, being a coastal state, was particularly vulnerable to sea water rise and therefore had to seek ways to collaborate with international organisations to develop the strategy to analyse the present and future vulnerability of the state.

Uduaghan added that the TACC programme would also assist in carrying out a comprehensive environmental diagnosis on emissions, gas flares, land use, atmospheric temperature, ecosystem and afforestation issues.