UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, announces new Climate Finance initiatives

On 26 June UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, made a speech proposing new elements of a global climate finance package. In his speech, the Prime Minister proposed a way forward for developed and developing countries to agree new mechanisms to pay for tackling climate change. He urged countries to work together on a global figure of around $100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries reduce their emissions, tackle deforestation and adapt to the climate change already being experienced. He committed the UK to providing new finance additional to existing Official Development Assistance commitments.

In advance of the G8 and Major Economies Summits in Italy next month, Gordon Brown urged his fellow leaders to agree on a new financing system to provide predictable and additional assistance to developing countries. This would comprise investment flowing through a global carbon market, new mechanisms to raise public finance and a limited proportion of Official Development Assistance. The funds would help developing countries to cut their emissions, use greener technology and reduce deforestation, as well as helping the poorest and most vulnerable countries cope with the effects of climate change already now occurring.

The Prime Minister also proposed far-reaching delivery and institutional arrangements to enhance developing countries’ voice in how the money is spent and to enhance coordination between all the institutions dealing with climate finance.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown told ambassadors, green groups and business organisations gathered in London:
"The UK is determined to secure an international agreement at Copenhagen that puts the world on a path to avoiding dangerous climate change. All countries have to take action, but to help developing countries move to low-carbon and climate-resilient growth we will need a new system of financial support for greener technology, deforestation and adaptation. I hope the proposals I set out today can help move the talks in that direction."

The Prime Minister’s speech is available at http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page19815

The UK’s climate manifesto: the ‘Road to Copenhagen’

With less than six months left before crucial climate negotiations take place in Copenhagen, the UK Government has set out for the first time why an international climate change agreement is vital for the world and what a deal must contain. The UK argues the global deal on climate change must be:

• Ambitious – limit climate change to 2 degrees, by making sure global greenhouse gas emissions peak and start to reduce by 2020, and keep on shrinking to reach at most half of their 1990 levels by 2050.
• Effective – keep all countries to their word with strong monitoring, reporting and verification; and let money flow to where it will make most difference by developing carbon markets
• Fair – support the poorest countries to cut their emissions and adapt to climate change.

Success in Copenhagen is also vital for Britain’s economic future and national security. Building a low carbon Britain and securing a Copenhagen deal will be in the UK’s business and economic interests. Over 800,000 people are now employed in the low carbon sector in the UK and well over a million jobs are predicted by the middle of the next decade.

Publishing ‘The Road to Copenhagen’, a manifesto for a global climate deal, Ed Miliband said:
“This is make or break time for our climate and our future. With less than six months to go before crunch negotiations in Copenhagen, it’s clear that there is no plan B for the planet.

“The world’s got no option but to work together to get a global climate deal that’s ambitious, effective and fair.

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Act on Copenhagen Website

The UK government has also launched a new Act on Copenhagen website http://www.actoncopenhagen.gov.uk/  to coincide Prime Minister's financing announcement and with The Road to Copenhagen launch. It is the official UK government website that presents the authoritative UK position on climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, 2009. It acts as the domestic and international hub for government and wider stakeholder activities in the lead up to Copenhagen. The site aims to create political space by raising, hosting, and facilitating climate change debate, and enabling global public engagement with Ministers.