$200bn – the price of success in Copenhagen

Oxfam International Press Release
7 December 2009

$200bn could mean the difference between success and failure in Copenhagen, said Oxfam International at the UN climate summit in the city today. The Summit marks the culmination of two years of international negotiations on a deal to prevent catastrophic climate change.

Rich countries could set off a chain reaction that leads to success in Copenhagen if they put forward at least $200bn per year in new public funds to help poor countries reduce their emissions and adapt to a changing climate.

Big developing countries such as China have signalled that they are willing to increase – and formalise – already significant pledges to reduce emissions if rich countries provide the necessary support. This, in turn, could help rich country leaders overcome domestic barriers to more ambitious targets. It will also secure the support of a much broader group of poor countries that need help to adapt to a rapidly changing climate.

President Obama could set the wheels in motion – and help compensate for clearly inadequate US emissions reduction targets – by announcing a substantial climate finance package when he arrives in Copenhagen on 9 December.

The European Union, whose Heads of State are meeting in Brussels on 10 and 11 December, could also help tip the balance by following through on promises to put forward their share of the necessary funds. The EU agreed in October that a global fund worth between €22 and €50 billion per year is needed to help poor countries tackle climate change but stopped short of saying how much it will contribute. The European Commission has estimated the EU’s fair at up to €15bn ($22bn) per year.

Oxfam warned that recent announcements on short-term emergency funds – fast start – for the world’s most vulnerable countries are no substitute for predictable financial support over the medium term (2013 – 2020). The recent meeting of Commonwealth Heads of State agreed that $10bn a year is needed in fast start funding between 2010 and 2012.

Oxfam also said all finance must be truly new and additional. Many rich countries – particularly Germany and Japan – still plan to use money from existing aid commitments to meet their climate obligations. Oxfam is calling for a global fund worth $150bn from 2013 rising to $200bn or more by 2020. The US and EU’s fair share – based on their historical responsibility for creating the climate crisis and their economic capacity to tackle it – amounts to $50 billion each per year.

Antonio Hill, Senior climate change advisor for Oxfam International, said:

“The price of success in Copenhagen is $200bn. $200bn could trigger off a chain reaction that delivers more ambitious emissions reductions and helps the world’s poorest people adapt to a changing climate. We need to see this figure sparkling overhead in Christmas lights by the end of the Summit. It’s peanuts compared to the $8.4 trillion we found to save drowning banks.”

“Rich countries are mistaken if they think that less than a third of the emissions cuts demanded by the science and $10bn in re-packaged aid promises can be spun as a success in two weeks time. It underestimates the real needs of billions of poor people and overestimates the patience of poor countries who have clearly signalled their preference for no deal over green wash.”

The Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, will attend the climate talks together with Minister for the Environment John Gormley and Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan. Irish development and environmental agencies have been highly critical of the failure by the Irish government to use Ireland’s voice to seek a fairer and safer deal in Copenhagen as the EU has discussed its position throughout the year, particularly the failure to ensure that climate financing does not come at the expense of the commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on Official Development Assistance.

“So far, the Irish government has been mute in seeking a fair and safe deal in Copenhagen. Brian Cowen and John Gormley must use this opportunity to speak up loud and clear for a fair and safe deal including making sure that overseas aid is not used to pay for the damage rich countries have caused to the climate”, added Colin Roche, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator with Oxfam Ireland.

Shorbanu Khatun, a mother of four from Bangladesh who lost her home when cyclone Aila hit in May 2009 and who is in Copenhagen to raise awareness of the impact of climate change on her community, said:

“For about last five years, everything seems to have changed. It is too hot and there is a severe scarcity of rain. There are fewer fish in the river and skin diseases, headache and diarrhoea have become regular phenomena. I have heard in a village gathering these are man-made disasters. I want to live. I want justice for my life and livelihoods; for my children’s lives and livelihoods.”

Notes to Editor

Oxfam Ireland is an independent member of Oxfam International- a group of thirteen non-governmental agencies dedicated to fighting poverty and related injustice around the world.

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