The European Union’s proposal today of global public financing worth €22-€50 billion per year for developing countries to tackle climate change not only falls short of what is needed, but comes with a fatal flaw, says international agency Oxfam.
“ Unless promises of climate finance are new and additional to existing aid commitments, they are simply old aid promises repackaged as something else, worth zero to poor countries,” says Robert Bailey, Oxfam’s Senior Policy Advisor on climate change.
“ Raiding exisiting aid budgets to pay for climate change will be a disaster for health and education in poor countries. Why would developing countries sign a deal that gives with one hand and takes with the other?” he added.
“Finally coming forward with numbers is a positive step. Gordon Brown has been pushing hard on this throughout the negotiations and his leadership must be commended,” said Bailey
“However, sadly the proposed figure falls well short of the € 110 billion needed to help poor countries adapt to climate change and curb their carbon emissions.”
Oxfam says that the top-end of the range offered by the EU , €50 billion per year, is less than half of what developing countries need to adapt to harmful climate change and pursue low-carbon futures. EU Heads of State did not give a concrete range for Europe’s fair share of that total, but said it would be based on their fair share of global responsibility for emissions and capability to pay. The European Commission earlier indicated that such criteria would lead to an EU contribution of between €2 and €15 billion per year. Oxfam is calling instead for Europe to provide at least €35 billion in public finance – alongside a comparable contribution from the US – towards a global climate fund of at least €110 billion per year.
Oxfam estimates that unless funding for climate change is in addition to existing aid budgets, there could be over four million more child deaths, at least 75 million fewer children attending school and over eight million fewer people with access to HIV/AIDS treatment than otherwise would have been the case.
“Europe has committed to increasing its overseas aid spending to 0.7% of national income. Climate financing must be in addition to this. If not, rich countries are simply asking the world’s poor to choose between building flood defenses or health centres and schools,” Bailey said.
Oxfam also said that today’s announcement from Brussels helped to turn the international spotlight back onto the United States. “The US now needs to step up and join the EU in talking about concrete financing numbers. Next week’s US-EU Summit is the perfect opportunity to begin,” said Bailey.
ENDS
For more information contact:
Robert Bailey, Senior Policy Advisor on Climate Change: +44 (0)7720 254444 or robailey@oxfam.org.uk
Natalie Curtis, Senior Press Officer on Climate Change: +44 (0) 7824 503108 or ncurtis@oxfam.org.uk
NOTES TO THE EDITOR
1. Poor countries need help to build up their resilience by, for example, upgrading national flood early-warning systems, planting mangrove ‘bio-shields’ along coasts to diffuse storm waves and growing drought-tolerant crops. If countries fail to adapt to the new reality of climate change, they will suffer far greater damage from floods, droughts and hurricanes, and at much higher cost, both in human and financial terms.
2. The EU’s climate finance commitments could be met without costing the European taxpayer another Euro. The European Commission estimates that €50bn per year will be raised from polluting industries by the auctioning of emission allowances under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. This money can be used in an international system to be agreed in Copenhagen that will give real assurances that promises on climate financing will not be broken.
