UN announces new Green Climate Fund committee
After some setbacks, the UNFCCC have announced the structure of the new Transitional Committee, who are entrusted with forming the UN’s Green Climate Fund (15 April). The new committee will meet later this month to begin working on a framework for the fund to be approved at COP17 in Durban in December.
The Transitional Committee responsible for the UN’s Green Climate Fund, to help developing countries address climate change, has been agreed, after previous rows had halted its creation.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), last week, announced the forty members who will be responsible for designing the fund, which will support a variety of projects, programmes and policies addressing climate change in the developing world.
The Transitional Committee will prepare operational specifications for the fund in time for approval at the next UN Climate Conference in Durban in December and was one of the first scheduled tasks under the Cancun Agreements.
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres said: “The high level of interest among governments in contributing to the design process is a demonstration of the great interest among Parties in the Green Climate Fund. Parties have put forward experienced and respected individuals from the fields of finance and climate change.”
“The transparent, predictable and adequate provision of finance in the long-term is essential to ensure that the poor and vulnerable can build themselves a sustainable future in the face of climate change.”
However, the funds formation has been plagued with disagreements, and last month the UN had to postpone the first Green Fund Meeting due to rows over who should be allowed to attend.
The meeting supposed to take place on 14 and 15 March in Mexico City, will now see the Transitional Committee meet for the first time on 28 and 29 April.
The Green Climate Fund is part of larger financial support offered under the Cancun Agreement, which sees industrialised countries committed to a joint goal of $100 billion by 2020, raised by both public and private sources.
Other frameworks approved to speed up international action under the agreement were the Technology Mechanism, to push for clean technologies and the Adaptation Framework to boost help for developing countries to protect themselves.
The fund, once set up, will be governed by the Green Climate Board comprising of 24 members, with equal numbers from the developing and developed countries. Money will be administered in accordance with the decisions of the board.
Image: vredieseilanden | flickr
