2014-09-11 11:32:00

Green Climate Fund seeks to help poor countries lower emissions


(Vatican Radio)   The United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Tuesday issued its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, which says carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere reached a new record high in 2013. The report also speaks about growing evidence the oceans and biosphere seem unable to soak up emissions as quickly as in the past.

Ahead of a climate summit organized by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at UN Headquarters in New York set to take place on 23 September, the WMO has urged the international community to take a concentrated action against accelerating and potentially devastating climate change.

One project initiated by the United Nations is the Green Climate Fund, established during the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, which seeks to help finance low-emission and climate-resilient development pathways for poorer countries, so they can limit their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

“If you look at what we call mitigation – the need for lower-emission development – this will include supporting solutions of cleaner energy,” said Héla Cheikhrouhou, the Fund's inaugural Executive Director.

Listen to the full interview by Vatican Radio with Héla Cheikhrouhou:

“For example, helping a country like Kenya, which has plenty of coal resources, but also plenty of geothermal - which comes…in the form of steam - to go with the steam solution, which has zero emissions of greenhouse gasses, but is more difficult to finance,” she explained.

Cheikhrouhou told Vatican Radio the planet is already feeling the effects of continuing delays in combatting carbon emissions.

“The science is there…the levels of emissions are [growing] exponentially,” she said.  “What we are observing today in the atmosphere is past emissions, it doesn’t even factor in current emissions, [since] there is a time lag.”

She warned that natural disasters are already getting worse, and “countries must start to act.”

The German Government recently pledged up to US$ 1 billion for the Green Climate Fund, and the first formal Green Climate  Fund Pledging Conference is scheduled to take place in November this year when contributors are to announce their initial contributions for the Fund.








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