Climate financing faces practical challenges: UN body

UNITED NATIONS: The goal of procuring and channelling $100 billion climate fund annually pledged by rich nations to developing countries at the Copenhagen summit still faces many practical challenges, an UN advisory group on Climate Change Financing has said.

"It is possible to say that the deliberations so far have shown that there are many different possible sources of finance," said Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway and co-chair of the advisory group.

"So the problem is not the number of possible sources of finance. The problem is whether there are politically viable, possible to implement in practice...that is the main issue," he told journalists here.

One of most concrete actions at the Copenhagen summit was the promise by rich nations to finance a USD 10 billion-a-year, three-year programme to fund poorer nations' projects to combat the effects of climate-change and to develop clean energy.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon underlined the need to figure out a way to get the funds for mitigation and adaptation quickly because "climate change is not going away."

"The risks and costs of inaction grow each year," Ban said. "The more we delay, the more we will have to pay in lost opportunities, resources and lives."

The advisory group on climate financing has met twice since it was setup in March -- the first time in London and the second meeting, this week, in New York.

It is expected to give its recommendations before world leaders gather for the next climate conference in Cancun, Mexico at the end of the year.

The UN chief said after receiving the recommendations, he would bring the suggestions into the fold of formal negotiating process.

"There are many sources of resource - how to package, how to generate in a politically viable, economically sound way - will be their challenge," he said. "And how to bring this matter into normal formal negotiation process...that will be my challenge."