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African Union climate negotiator willing to negotiate on financing
The African Union negotiator at climate change talks in Copenhagen has scaled back the amount of funding that African countries want from the developed world to fight and adapt to climate change.
P.M. Meles Zanawi of Ethiopia
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, negotiating for the African Union, announced Wednesday he would support 100 billion dollars in yearly financing from industrialized countries for adaptation and mitigation, a decrease from the 150 billion dollars the European Union estimates developing countries will need.
"We in Africa felt that perhaps we could help in breaking one of those points that are creating the logjam - finance. We hope this is a contribution we can make, if we can help resolve the finance issues, then perhaps the other issues could also be addressed through similar constructive approaches."
In Meles Zenawi's proposal, funding would be financed by creative financing mechanisms including carbon taxes and sales of emissions rights. The scaled back expectation in funding, he said, was in exchange for more reliable funding.
Gateway to the UN System's Work on Climate Change
Charles Appel, United Nations
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