Environmentalists urge rich nations to boost funding

The world's wealthy countries need to pump more money into financing poorer nations' efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and cope with climate change, environmentalists said yesterday ahead of a global warming conference.

Representatives 20 countries -- including the US, European nations, Japan and China -- were to hold a weekend meeting outside Tokyo to focus on developing clean technology and financing the race to stave off possible environmental disaster caused by rising world temperatures.

Environmentalists taking aim at the US-backed clean technology fund to which Washington announced a US$2 billion contribution in January.

The US government says the fund, which is seeking donations from other countries, would speed up the development of cleaner, more efficient technologies, in developing nations, especially up-and-coming polluters like India and China.

Japan, meanwhile, has pledged US$10 billion over five years for a similar fund, and Britain last year announced its own fund.

CONSULTATION

To be effective, funds such as the US one need more money, should be formed with full consultation with the countries receiving the funds and should continually generate additional money, said Jennifer Morgan, with the E3G environmentalist group.

"Unfortunately, none of these criteria have been met," she said.

Developing say they need access to cleaner fuels, alternative energy sources and cleaner burning power plants to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, while at the same time building seawalls to battle rising oceans and taking other steps to counteract the effects of warming.

Alden Meyer, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that the UN has estimated it would take about US$200 billion a year in clean technologies to get greenhouse gas emissions back down to current levels by 2030 -- much more than what's on the table so far.

The money should come from new contributions from governments, investment redirected from the private sector and money generated through a vast expansion of the trading of carbon credits -- a system that is already being experimented with in Europe.

"A key part of negotiations over the next two years is to come up with resources that are predictable, dedicated and of the magnitude needed," he said.

The critics also said the funding efforts so far had been set up by the donors without sufficient consultation with poorer nations.

OBLIGATION

Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, of the ActionAid environmentalist group, said rich nations had an obligation to help developing nations.

"We want to see that this is not a matter of charity," he said, adding that pollution caused by wealthy nations has caused the crisis that poorer nations now have to grapple with.