G-8 cash sought for climate change fund

U.N official: Developing countries need money now to fight global warming

AMSTERDAM – Developing countries need money now to grapple with global warming, and the Group of Eight summit this week could energize troubled climate negotiations if it decided to make “significant” funds available, the top U.N. climate official said Monday.

The focus of U.N. climate talks over the past 18 months has been on an agreement to control greenhouse gases after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires, including cash for developing countries.

But Yvo de Boer, who oversees the talks among 192 nations, says bumping up existing climate funds now would be a “practical, useful, tangible” signal to developing countries that the rich countries are serious about a deal. The accord is due to be completed in Copenhagen in December.

De Boer declined to mention figures, but studies by the World Bank and other institutions suggest between $5 billion and $10 billion a year are needed to help countries deal with changing weather patterns affecting agriculture, fishing and the effects of severe storms and drought. That figure could grow to $100 billion annually by 2020.

Accounts in the World Bank and special U.N. facilities now contain a few hundred million dollars.

MSNBC