Poor countries 'unable' to absorb climate funding, EU warned
EurActiv, Wednesday 3 June 2009
While governments haggle over the amounts needed to finance climate adaptation in developing countries in order to close a global agreement later this year, concerns are being raised that the demand side of adaptation has been ignored.
If climate negotiators continue to have hang ups over the question of how much funding is needed for adaptation, they will fail to address the other key issue of establishing a mechanism to ensure that adaptation actually takes place, Philip Mikos, head of unit at the European Commission's development department, told a Development Policy Forum roundtable on 29 May.
Debating where the money for tackling climate change should come from, participants in the roundtable agreed that while funds for adaptation can be found, the demand side will need more work.
It is not obvious that developing countries, some of which are already having difficulty absorbing development aid, will be able to make efficient use of the additional funds they could receive under a new global climate treaty, the forum heard.
"The most fundamental requirement is assets to demand," said Johan Schaar, director of the Swedish Commission on Climate Change and Development. He pointed out that much public funding will be needed to create safety nets in poor countries which guarantee sufficient income for people to access markets and adaptive technologies.
Schaar argued that the three years between the conclusion of the climate agreement and its entry into force in 2012 will be crucial for poorer nations to build the capacity needed to benefit from future funding.
The roundtable also strongly argued against financing climate efforts through development assistance. Such funds should be additional and monitored by a global board to ensure that the money finds its way to those most in need. Official development assistance (ODA) has traditionally been seen as serving the donor countries' political interests rather than assisting the least-developed countries.
Development agencies demand right techs
Shortly after parties to the UN climate talks adopted a negotiating text, CIDSE and Caritas Internationalis, umbrella organisations for Catholic development agencies, today (3 June) called on governments not to forget adaptation technologies benefiting the world's poor. They stressed that such technologies also include different forms of knowledge and practice, and not just materials and equipment.
In a report launched at the second round of UN climate talks taking place in Bonn on 1-12 June, the development networks argued that the talks are currently biased in favour of mitigation technologies, with countries keen to discuss technology transfer but ignoring the importance of adaptation to poverty reduction.
"The negotiations must ensure a coherent and coordinated approach to technology and adaptation under the new agreement, and dedicate the financing and institutional capacity necessary to support them," said Sol Oyuela, a policy expert from the CIDSE and Caritas networks. "The negotiating text which has come out contains some promising language which can be built on in this direction, but there still is a need for more focus on the adaptation technologies," she added.
According to the report, the appropriate technologies are already known as they have been developed in developing countries themselves and can be rolled out accordingly. They must be able to fit local circumstances and use local resources as much as possible, it states.
Developing countries need adaptation technologies that take up few resources and are low-maintenance, the agencies stress. Moreover, they have to be able to work hand-in-hand with mitigation efforts, particularly for land uses like agriculture and forestry, which strengthen food security and livelihoods.
CIDSE and Caritas thus urged climate negotiators to link technology with adaptation talks. They called for an international technology mechanism to help diffuse both existing and future adaptation technologies, and build capacities to adopt advanced technologies like early warning systems and new crop varieties.
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