Christiana Figueres from Costa Rica, who took over as head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) this July, said she expected rich countries to also indicate the “sourcing of $30 billion” that they committed during the last climate summit in Copenhagen.
“The funding will be available, but the expectation of 100 per cent additionally may not be met,” Ms Figueres cautioned, referring to the worry among developing countries that rich countries would move current aid funds to the climate change kitty.
Speaking to a small group of journalists, she said more money may be available for mitigating the emission of carbon dioxide and other gases that are leading to global warming, rather than for adapting to the effects of climate change.
Ms Figueres, on a day-long visit to New Delhi to discuss India’s strategy in Cancum, said after a lengthy meeting with minister of environment and forests Jairam Ramesh, “India holds a very important leadership role in these negotiations and minister Ramesh has involved himself personally in them (negotiations).”
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change recognises the importance of fast-track financing but she emphasised that this would not meet with 100 per cent expectation of developing nations.
“There has to be a realisation that funding will be available but that 100 per cent additionally will not be met. The tendency will be more for mitigation than adaptation. But if countries think it will a 50:50 split, that will not be the case,” the UNFCC top boss said.
There are two negotiation tracks. The Kyoto Protocol and the instruments of Kyoto Protocol will continue but the market will not be restricted only to the Kyoto Protocol. Technology transfer is of a great significance and what governments are looking to establish are technology transfer mechanisms.
There will be a North-South and a South-South transfer mechanism which will have an executive body and a network of regional centres that will facilitate these exchanges.
When asked to comment on the recent criticism of the UN-appointed Academic Council to review the functioning of the IPCC, Ms Figueres explained that “Both the UN Secretary General and Dr R. Pachauri had asked for a review by the Academic Council and they had both welcomed the report. It has made some very constructive suggestions. Let us see how these will be implemented. The report will not impact negotiations because negotiations are based on science of climate change. That has not been questioned. The press carried many stories about IPCC but that has not made a difference. Natural disasters provide a much more compelling case when we try and balance and asses the impact of climate change. India faced a failure of monsoon last year and this year, 14 million people have been affected by floods in Pakistan. There is widespread worry that recent events like the floods in Pakistan or the heat wave in Russia may be connected to climate change, and developing countries have been seeking more funds to deal with such effects.” She agreed that the money currently in the adaptation fund of the UNFCCC was “completely insufficient”.