Maravi

IIED bemoans lack of transparency on Copenhagen promises

IIED bemoans lack of transparency on Copenhagen promises
By Kabanda Chulu
Wed 28 Sep. 2011, 13:20 CAT

Developed countries are far from being transparent about the climate-change finance they promised to developing nations at the Copenhagen summit in 2009, according to a scorecard published by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

The IIED scorecard assesses how transparent countries have been in the delivery of US$ 30 billion of ‘new and additional' funds, which they agreed to provide to developing countries between 2010 and 2012.

Norway ranked top on the scorecard but with a score of only 52 per cent while New Zealand came last with just 26 per cent.

"The generally low scores unveils progress in some areas and show that countries are not consistent in being transparent about all aspects of their funding," it stated.

"The overall lack of transparency hinders efforts to monitor where the money goes and ensure it is spent responsibly. It also means recipient countries may struggle to plan their responses to climate change."

One of the authors David Ciplet stated that a transparent system for reporting on climate finance was essential to make sure that funds were adequate, predictable and used responsibly.

"Greater transparency will be critical to building trust in the international negotiations towards a global agreement on how to tackle climate change," he stated.

Another author Dr Saleemul Huq stated that transparency was as important for the taxpayers in the North as it was for climate-vulnerable countries in the South.

"Transparent reporting is essential to enable recipient countries to plan their responses to climate change and for civil society to hold governments to account on their promises," stated Dr Huq.

Labels: ENVIRONMENT, IIED

posted by MrK @ 3:43 PM