UN debuts web site for tracking climate funding

The UN has today launched a new web site designed to track climate funding commitments from industrialised countries. It has done so in a bid to boost confidence that developed economies are delivering on their commitment to provide $30bn (£19.4bn) in "fast-start" funding to help poorer nations combat climate change.

The Netherlands-hosted site, titled FastStartFinance.org, was unveiled at a meeting of about 45 nations in Geneva where environment ministers are discussing climate funding proposals.

The site will allow industrialised countries to provide data on their climate funding initiatives. So far six European donors, including the UK and Germany, have detailed their fast-start funding commitments, providing information on 27 recipient nations.

Dutch environment minister Tineke Huizinga urged other countries to provide information on how much money they will provide over the next three years to help developing countries cut carbon emissions and adapt to climate change.

Christiana Figueres, head of the UN's climate change secretariat, welcomed the new initiative, arguing that it would help to boost confidence in the negotiations ahead of the crucial UN climate change summit in Mexico in November.

"I have always called this short-term financing the golden key to Cancun," she told reporters. "It is particularly urgent and important to have clarity about the source, the allocation and the disbursement of the short-term funds."

The $30bn fast-start funding was one of the central commitments of the agreement hammered out at last year's Copenhagen summit and its delivery is being seen by developing countries as a key test of industrialised nations' commitment to the deal.
Diplomats hope that the provision of $30bn of "new and additional" funding will help to boost trust between the two parties and may serve to break many of the deadlocks that continue to mar the negotiations.

However, concerns remain among poorer countries over the extent to which the funding committed to date has been diverted from other aid budgets.

A recent analysis from Reuters suggested that industrialised countries had already pledged funding equal to the $30bn target, but it is unclear how much of the funding is new.

Huizinga admitted that the new web site would not address such concerns as countries will be allowed to submit their own information, which will not be subject to checks.

In an interview with Reuters, Figueres called on developing countries to show some flexibility when deciding where funding is genuinely new, noting that the Copenhagen Agreement was reached after many governments had completed their budgets for 2010 and as a result it was difficult for them to deliver genuinely additional funding at short notice.