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In a critical step to move international action on climate change forward, the United Nations (UN) just formed a climate financing taskforce. This high-level taskforce will be co-chaired by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. The taskforce will investigate ways of raising $100 million per year, starting in 2020, to help poorer nations cut their emissions and cope with the effects of climate change.
The new taskforce will present its first findings at the Bonn summit in June. It will submit its final recommendations prior to the Mexico Summit at the end of the year, where we hope, once again, international worlds leaders will agree to a binding climate change treaty.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said there would be investment and climate financing experts from business, academia and politics and there would be an “even balance” of representatives from developed and developing countries on the taskforce.
Rich nations, under the Copenhagen Accord, committed to providing poor nations with $30 million per year over the next three years and $100 million per year starting in 2020 to help them cope with climate change, but how they will do that is still a big question.
“Even those that welcomed the Accord and its commitment on finance remain skeptical about the practicalities of delivering that finance,” admitted Zenawi. The taskforce will try to ensure that happens and in the most efficient and transparent way possible, according to Zenawi.
Gordon Brown said that the taskforce would investigate a variety of “innovative financing mechanisms” aimed at raising funds from public and private entities.
“Proposals for a Tobin Tax on financial transactions backed by the British and French governments are likely to play a central role in the advisory group’s work, along with proposals for an international levy on aviation and shipping designed to help curb emissions and raise funding for climate mitigation and adaptation projects,” James Murray of Business Green reports.
This looks like a practical step forward by the UN that could help to get the organization on a productive track again.
Image Credit: London Summit via flickr under a CC license
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