Yes, yes, it’s not a phrase one hears very often these days, but credit where it’s due: Gordon Brown’s climate change speech a week ago was first rate. Don’t just take it from me – Dan Smith thinks so too:
I think the Brown government – covered as it is with the ordure of scandal and recession that is dished out daily by the UK news media, the commentariat and the blogosphere – deserves a whole heap of credit for getting out in front of the crowd like this.
So what’s Brown done that’s so praiseworthy? In essence, the right thing on financing for climate change in developing countries (both the adaptation and the mitigation / technology transfer side of the equation). The key points in his speech are:
– a commitment that “I will commit the UK now to paying its fair share of the global total of [a climate financing mechanism for developing countries]. And we would expect other developed countries to do the same”;
– recognition that climate finance must be additional to the 0.7% aid target, and that “while some climate finance can come from official development assistance – where it clearly meets both poverty reduction and adaptation or mitigation objectives – a ceiling should be placed on this … in the UK we will limit such expenditure to up to 10% of our official development assistance. And we will work towards this limit being agreed internationally”;
– and a headline global needs figure of $100 billion a year by 2020 for adaptation.
These are really significant announcements. The $100 billion figure is at the high end of the range of figures so far mentioned (and looking at the rate at which the science outlook is worsening on climate damages, the high end is the correct end of the spectrum). But better still is the absolutely explicit commitment on additionality. Aid advocates have been seriously worried about the potential that more and more development aid would end up being diverted to coping with climate, rather than actively reducing poverty – Brown’s speech puts a tough new benchmark in place.
The big question now is whether the Conservative party will match Brown’s pledge on adaptation finance. True, they say that they’re committed to reaching the 0.7% aid spending target (it’s one of only two spending areas that the Conservatives have promised to protect) – but that’s of little use if all the money ends up being diverted to coping with climate change…
