Annual $100 bn funding for climate change possible: UN

NEW YORK - A UN advisory group headed by leaders of Norway and Ethiopia said Friday that it would be possible to raise as much as $100 billion a year to fight climate change by 2020.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and his counterpart from Ethiopia Meles Zenawi said in a study that the goal set by industrialised nations to raise the amount could be a challenge, but it is feasible.

The prime ministers, who led an advisory group on climate change financing, gave the study to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the UN headquarters in New York as part of UN preparations for a new round of climate negotiations scheduled to take place next month in Cancun, Mexico.

Ban said the study contained “financing options that are both financially feasible and politically viable”.

“It will need sustained political will, appropriate public policy signals for the markets and financial ingenuity,” Ban said in response to the study.

He called on all countries to demonstrate a strong commitment to fight climate change.

Ban also urged the G20 summit in Seoul next week to discuss climate change directly. Ban will take part in the meeting with national leaders of the world’s 20 richest nations.

He said in a letter sent to the G20 summit that the group could lead the way “by delivering on the fast start funding targets for the 2010-2012 period”.

Governments attending the climate summit in Copenhagen last December agreed that funding is critical to assist developing countries deal with global warming, including provisions of green technology, which many poor countries cannot afford.