EU's perspective and action plan in Cancun

Funding to help developing countries address issues of climate change will be one of the key issues discussed in the Cancun climate change conference. According to Euroactiv, the EU will present a fast-start finance report at the talks, showing that in 2010, it mobilised €2.2bn from the promised total of €7.2bn to be delivered over the next three years. The expectation is that other developed countries will follow this EU iniitiative.

The rule on monitoring reporting and verification of emission reductions, and the transfer of technology to developing countries to deal with climate change is also one of the key issues to be discussed, but concrete outcomes will depend on the availability of funds. It seems that the expectations for these talks are much more measured when compared to the excitement of the Copenhagen talks, and this is reflected in the apparently slower number of key political figures traveling to the Mexican resort.

The development of a proposed "Green Fund" which would provide funding for developing countries to confront the challenges of climate change. The kernel idea for the Green Fund has been around since 2008. It is now  been endorsed by the International Monetary Fund.

EU Climate Aid delivered by the EU to Developing Countries.

At the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009,  developed countries agreed as part of the Copenhagen Accord to provide climate aid to developing countries to help them counteract some of the effects of climate change in their regions. The list of countries and amounts pledged is available here.

The EU has just announced as part of a fast-start report to be presented at the Climate Change Conference in Cancun later in November, that it has delivered 2.2 billion Euros to help developing countries cut emissions and adapt to climate change between 2010 and 2012. However the EU is actually falling short of its pledged commitments to finance climate chainge aid. A number of EU countries have not yet delivered  their pledges or are attempting to renounce the commitments pledged at Copenhagen alleging the financial crisis. Italy in particular has renoucned its committment and is no loger included in the updated list of donors.


The report shows that almost half of the EU funding in 2010 went to mitigation to help poor countries cut their emissions by adopting low-carbon technologies and a third went to adaptation projects. A further €362 million was allocated to forest protection. However over half of the finance was delivered in loans and only €1.05bn in grants, according to the report. Climate finance will be a key topic for negotiation at the Cancun conference. The UN  commissioned a report on climate change financing which recognises the scale and the urgency of  supporting and financing mitigation measures in developing countries.