EU leaders put off big climate finance questions

EU Development Ministers must affirm that climate finance additional to existing and promised aid at their meeting in Copenhagen Monday.

ONE’s Executive Director and Co-founder, Jamie Drummond, reacted to the EU’s commitment to provide €2.4bn per year in fast track funding for climate financing for poor countries over next 3 years:

"It’s good the EU isn't pretending this first down payment is new money. Now they must make sure that the serious funding for the medium term really is both new and sufficient - by fully leveraging public, private and innovative sources."

"This fast-track money should be delivered urgently and there should be transparency about where it’s coming from, and which countries are providing genuinely additional resources."

"It’s clear that new sources for additional finance must be found on top of public aid funding.  A taskforce on innovative finance should be urgently convened to help identify and secure this new money."

"We need guarantees that longer-term climate financing will be firmly additional to both existing and promised money for the Millennium Development Goals. EU Development Ministers, meeting in Copenhagen on Monday (14 December), are well placed to give that guarantee. Without such a pledge, European governments will be ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’, and undermining partnerships with the developing world precisely when trust is needed most to get a positive deal in Copenhagen."

ONE calls on EU Development Ministers to make that commitment clear at their meeting in Copenhagen on Monday.

Notes to editors

For interviews and background briefings please contact Jessica Gomez-Duran on +44 (0)7500 085776 or Jessica.gomez-duran@one.org.

• ONE is campaigning on this issue with its members and so far over 60,000 people have signed a petition to stop double counting, addressed to Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, which will be delivered to the Danish Government on Monday.
• The petition reads as follows
  
  As part of the Copenhagen climate agreement, please ensure that:
  
  1. Existing aid promises are kept.
  2. Additional costs borne by people living in poverty caused by climate change are paid for by additional money.
  3. Countries are transparent about how much development aid is being reallocated to fighting climate change.
  (http://www.one.org/international/actnow/copenhagen/ )

• The EU estimates that €7bn is needed annually over the period 2010-2012 to help poor countries adapt to climate change, and although the EU contribution represents more than 34% of that figure, much of the money announced will be taken from national aid budgets.
• ONE is a campaign and advocacy organisation co-founded by Bono and backed by more than two million members worldwide dedicated to combating extreme poverty and disease, especially in Africa. For more information go to www.one.org