Reports: Japan to increase climate funding offer to $10bn

As another fraught day of negotiations gets under way at the Copenhagen summit, there was some good news for diplomats attempting to bridge the gap between rich and poor nations when it emerged Japan could be poised to increase its offer of climate funding.

The Tokyo Shimbun paper reported earlier today that prime minister Yukio Hatoyama will on Friday announce to the summit that Japan will increase its climate funding contribution to $10bn (£6bn) over the next three years.

The Japanese government had previously signalled that it would offer $9.2bn over three years, but environment minister Sakihito Ozawa said last week that it was keen to raise the offer. Now it appears that Japan will increase the funding, which is intended to protect biodiversity, accelerate the rollout of clean technologies and increase investment in climate adaptation measures.

The funding is expected to be paid into the new "fast track" fund, which was kicked off late last week when the EU announced it would pay €2.5bn (£2.2bn) a year into the fund for three years.

The fund will run from next year to 2012 and is intended to kick-start developing countries' investment in clean technologies and climate adaptation measures. It will also serve to bridge the funding gap until 2012, when any funding approved as part of a post-Kyoto agreement is expected to come into effect.

More than $20bn has been pledged to the new fund and all eyes will now turn to the US, which has said it will pay its fair share but is yet to put a figure on its funding commitment.

In related news, US energy secretary Steven Chu yesterday announced the formation of a $350m clean technology fund for developing countries, pledging that the US would provide $85m over five years to the new fund.