Another central element of bringing developed and developing countries together in an international agreement will be financing.
Ultimately, financing under a new global climate change agreement should support concerted efforts by all countries to achieve a strong environmental outcome. From Australia’s perspective this means global emissions reductions consistent with stabilisation at or below 450 ppm. Australia recognises that developed countries have a responsibility to show leadership by providing substantially scaled-up public funding up to and beyond 2012.
Developed and advanced countries must provide public financing for adaptation, prioritised toward those of the poorest countries that are most vulnerable to climate change. Targeted public funding will help ensure that nationally appropriate actions to reduce emissions can be made without sacrificing the over-riding priority of development, and in particular, the eradication of poverty.
The scale of the financing task we face is uncertain, but no doubt extremely large and beyond the capacity of public sources alone. To meet the scale required, all sources of finance – both public and private, domestic and international will be needed. Australia is working towards a global agreement on public financing that broadens the base of contributing countries. Mexico’s work in this area has been instrumental in developing approaches to burden sharing.
Developing countries stand to benefit substantially if public funding is used to unlock private investment. Over time, well-functioning carbon markets will provide the majority of support for global actions to reduce emissions.
The governance and delivery of climate change finance – whether in existing institutions or in new ones - should be founded on principles such as equity and efficiency. We must balance the right of developing countries to equitable representation on governance structures that oversight funding, with the need for those countries contributing resources to account for their use.
Early action on both adaptation and mitigation will reduce global costs and the costs to individual countries. To this end, Australia is working to build a coordinated approach that will deliver financing where it is needed most, sooner rather than later.
