Climate Change: Sweden Pleas For Funds To Developing Countries
The Swedish government has urged countries in the West and international donors to honour their financial commitments to developing countries to enable them fight climate change.
Written by Obadiah Ayoti, ASNS News, 14 May 2009
Swedish government’s Commission on Climate Change and Development (CCCD) calls for mobilization of new and additional climate adaptation money to assist developing countries mitigate the effects of climate change.
In its report presented to the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday,CCCD wants priority to be given to the most vulnerable countries – African and small island states in particular by supporting existing National Adaptation Programs of Action as entry points to long term integrated plans and strategies.
To avoid creation of new mechanisms that might delay essential action, the Commission recommends that donors immediately mobilize USD 1-2 billion to assist vulnerable, low-income countries that already suffer from climate change impacts.
Secondly, countries must agree on a mechanism with democratic and efficient governance and the necessary flexibility to cater for the variety of needs.
At the national level, countries must be able to receive and allocate funds from multiple sources with a minimum of transaction costs.
On the other hand, local government and organizations must have access to the resources they need. The Commission finds the current proliferation of financing mechanisms for adaptation problematic since it creates a coherence problem and puts pressure on the management capacity of developing countries.
While more work is required to better estimate adaptation needs, there are promising options proposed to raise funds. Some could bring between USD 5 and USD 15 additional billion a year – which is in the lower range of estimated needs.
Speaking while presenting the report in New York , Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation and Chairman of the international Commission on Climate Change and Development Gunilla Carlsson emphasized on the need to pool resources to fight poverty and climate change.
“Fighting poverty and fighting climate change are the ultimate issues of our time. They are inseparable and have to be addressed together,” Carlsson said. Commenting on the report, International Institute for Environment and Development Director Camilla Toulmin hailed Sweden for piling pressure on developed countries to assist poor nations to adapt to climate change. “ Sweden has taken an important lead in focusing attention on the need for developing countries to adapt to climate change. This report should highlight to all United Nations member states that significant additional finances for adaptation must start flowing from richer to poorer nations. At the same time global greenhouse gas emissions must be drastically reduced to limit the ultimate costs of adaptation, which will be measured not in dollars but human lives,” added the Director.
The Commission studied climate change impacts in vulnerable environments in different parts of the world. For instance Cambodia , Mali and Bolivia have different exposure to climate risks based on their divergent political and governance characteristics hence they will require different solutions to adapt to climate change effects.
For the poorest communities the priority is to build people’s adaptive capacity and resilience ability to manage risks and shocks.
In richer environments, adaptation will emphasize technical measures that might not have been necessary without climate change. In practice, each country will require a mix of human and technical measures – the challenge will be to get the balance right.
Institutions have a crucial role to play everywhere. They mediate resources and services through them needs are expressed and accountability exercised. “We cannot continue to work in silos and with the gaps between institutions that so often prevent coordinated and coherent action. Climate change affects all sectors – we must consequently work across all of them,” Carlsson noted.
Most importantly, climate change actions, development planning and disaster risk reduction must come together. This requires that they are led from the highest political and organizational level.
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