UN Climate Change Conference 2011: Developing countries to get Green Climate Fund

DURBAN: The developing countries appear to have got their way with the Green Climate Fund. The financial mechanism, which will channel funds to developing countries to tackle climate change, was stuck in a logjam.

South Africa, which heads the current round of climate talks in Durban, has after informal consultations taken the view that the climate finance mechanism or Green Climate Fund ( GCF) will work under the oversight "accountable and function under the guidance" of the Conference of Parties or the general assembly of all the countries.

The United States has not been in favour of an arrangement whereby the general assembly will be the reporting authority for the fund. During the four-round negotiations to decide on the structure of the fund, the US had made it clear that it would prefer a looser relationship with the Conference of Parties. "We are keen to have the fund in a professional way," Stern explained.

At Durban this has been one of the sticking points delaying a decision on the financial mechanism, which is slated as one of the big achievements of the current round of talks. At the Cancun round of talks last year, it was agreed that the Transitional Committee would be appointed to design the fund.

Over the last year, a 40-member Transitional Committee held four rounds of negotiations and presented its recommendations in a draft document on the design of the GCF. All countries agree that the design is not perfect but it presents a middle ground that would allow for the launching the GCF in Durban. Some countries, represented by the ALBA or Bolivarian Alliance, wanted the Transitional Committee's report to be renegotiated.

Stern said that "the document is not being re-opened. What is being negotiated is the covering note on which the COP takes a decision."