December, 2008
POLAND - Poznan, December 12 - The annual UN climate change conference ended shortly before 3:00 am today in Poznan with a commitment from governments to shift into full negotiating mode next year in order to shape a effective international response to climate change, to be agreed in Copenhagen at the end of 2009.
Negotiators agreed that the board of the Kyoto Protocol’s Adaptation Fund would have the legal capacity to grant developing countries direct access to about $60 million to help them adapt to the effects of global warming.
Until now, the Adaptation Fund board could not operate because it was not allowed to approve and sign such contracts.
The Adaptation Fund is fed by voluntary contributions and a two percent share of proceeds from the protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism. The CDM allows the industrial nations governed by the protocol to receive credit towards their emissions limits by investing in green projects in developing countries.
But governments were unable to reach consensus on scaling up funding for adaptation by agreeing to put a levy on the other two Kyoto Protocol mechanisms, Joint Implementation and Emissions Trading.
Progress was made in the area of technology with the endorsement of the Global Environment Facility’s “Poznan Strategic Programme on Technology Transfer.”
The aim of this program is to scale up the level of investment by leveraging private investments that developing countries need for climate mitigation and adaptation technologies.
