Introduction
Climate change is making poor people
more vulnerable and marginalised in developing countries despite the fact that
they have very little responsibility for causing climate change. Developed
countries, with less than 20% of the world’s population, are responsible for
75% of global emissions (UNFCCC 2009 cited in Nakhooda et al. 2011, p. 1). Therefore there is growing consensus
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by developed countries, and in the meantime,
to support poor countries by providing finance for climate change adaptation
programme (Oxfam 2007, p. 2). Climate finance is defined as financial resources for tackling climate
change while delivering sustainable development (Doig 2009, p. 1). Under the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), developed
countries commit to help developing countries in meeting costs of adaptation
programmes to combat climate change. Hence, global funding mechanisms
under UNFCCC, Kyoto protocol, and bilateral and multilateral donors have been
established to fulfil growing demand to support this program since 1992.
Different studies have estimated
different amounts required for the adaptation programme which is quite higher
than the committed by the developed nations. For example, World Development
Report (2010) has estimated USD 30 - 100 billion per year is required to adapt
climate change (see Table 1). This fund must not come from the 0.7% target of UN development assistance, and
should cover the extra costs of responding to climate change in as usual
scenario. I will argue that the pledged fund is not sufficient for the climate
change adaptation programme in order to address the need of developing
countries, it should be additional to development assistance, and direct access
to funding resources should be provided to developing countries to make funds
efficient. I will analyse in this paper i) how much global funds under
different mechanisms are available and what are the shortfalls, and ii) does
direct access to these funds make them efficient and benefit to developing nations?
