Climate Financing Stalls as Rich Nations Miss UN Deadline

Efforts to finance a deal that seeks to accumulate some $30 billion in initial “fast-track” funding for climate change adaptation and mitigation from 2010 to 2012 failed to gain headway as rich nations missed the May 1 deadline set for developing schemes to combat climate change.

Only Russia and Ukraine sent letters to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, saying they are not obligated to provide funds for the deal, according to Reuters. In the December 2010 meeting of 200 countries in Cancun, Mexico, developed nations agreed to outline the details of their startup funds by May 2011 as part of a larger deal that included the setup of a green fund.  

>> Green Fund’s Transitional Panel Fails to Make Significant Progress 

“Developed countries continue to teeter in honoring even their modest commitments,” Reuters quotes Clifford Polycarp, senior associate in the institutions and governance program of the World Resources Institute, which keeps track of funding pledges for climate change. Polycarp added, however, that deadlines set by U.N. agencies are often flexible and that rich nations are expected to hand in detailed plans soon.

Under the climate finance deal, aid is supposed to increase to $100 billion annually by 2020.

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