US plays the fund card at Copenhagen

COPENHAGEN: The US, on Thursday, attempted to fend off the deal breaker tag at Copenhagen by offering to contribute to a long-term fund — $100 bn by 2020 — to help the developing nations’ transition to cleaner energy. But it made it clear that the offer was contingent upon ‘transparent’ actions by the participants.

Ms Clinton said the funding will come from a variety of sources — public and private, multilateral and bilateral. She also repeatedly said that the fund would be spent with a special emphasis on forestry and adaptation in “the poorest and most vulnerable” countries. This would mean that money spent on REDD, clean development mechanism, would also be included in this $100 billion. She did not specify the amount of the US contribution.

Given that the US has not upped its emission offers and proposed a fund that will draw on all possible sources, the move was aimed at putting pressure on the developing countries to make concessions. Ms Clinton repeatedly stressed on the issue of transparency. MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification) of all actions has been one of US’ persistent demands. In her address, Ms Clinton linked the funds to international oversight. “Time and time again, the various parties have agreed to the standards we are seeking, including transparency,” she said, referring to objections to global oversight of domestic efforts to restrict greenhouse gas emissions.

“There have been numerous instances in the past year where parties have agreed to the standards we are seeking,” she said, listing the series of summits that preceded these talks. There are several areas of concern for the developing countries. Ms Clinton’s emphasis that the fund will go to “nations most vulnerable and least prepared” is certain to hurt the interests of the emerging economies.

The Chinese rightly sensed the US design. “We have legally binding emission cuts nationally. We are also willing to improve the national communication network to have more transparency. But countries should avoid confrontation. We are willing for an exchange dialogue that is not intrusive,” He Yafei, Chinese vice-minister for foreign affairs said. But the Indian side made contradictory noises.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh described the announcement as “a good first step” even as he expressed concern over the conditionalities. “Seems to be a lot of conditionalities, which seem undesirable. We will have to see the details and India will not contribute to any global fund,” the minister said. The Africans seemed unimpressed by the US offer. “It’s a pinch of sugar to sweeten a cauldron of failed commitments,” said an African negotiator.