New Geopolitical Times
Global warming: how to restore trust after the Copenhagen fiasco?

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ix months after failing to reach a binding agreement on climate change, negotiators are meeting in Bonn to try to get the process back on track. But deep disagreement over measuring developing countries' emissions and finding funds for adaptation to climate change remain unresolved. 'Copenhagen was a pretty horrible conference,' conceded Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 'This year it’s about restoring trust and that’s why it is important that the $30 billion fast-start funding starts flowing. That would be a motion of confidence in the process.' De Boer said that clear criteria and a framework for how the fast-start funds will be disbursed is still lacking. Greater clarity is also needed on how to raise the $100 billion a year

which the Copenhagen Accord envisions should be available by 2020.

Funding a global response A paper published Jun. 7 by Project Catalyst of the ClimateWorks Foundation and the European Climate Foundation (ECF) suggests that the demand for money to support mitigation, adaptation and reduced degradation of forests in the developing world will be $21-54 billion over the next three years. An additional $100-190 billion in private sector investment will have to be found each year. This is money directed to things like Brazil's Amazon Fund, which aims to reduce deforestation there by 80

percent. It's funding steer developing countries towards renewable energy sources, and more efficient factories, buildings, vehicles and appliances. And it's meeting the developed world's commitment to pay the costs of adaptation to climate change for those with least responsibility for greenhouse gases to date, but the greatest vulnerability to the effects of global warming. Project Catalyst stresses that fulfilling pledges on adaptation is crucial to maintaining trust and eventual