Climate finance: Let’s make every dollar count
Two years ago rich countries met at the climate change summit in Copenhagen and pledged $100 billion per year from 2020 to help poorer nations battle the havoc wrought by floods, droughts and other damaging weather patterns blamed on climate change. The money was also meant to fund greener technologies like solar power and wind generation.
Durban summit must deliver accountability
As policymakers meet in Durban this week to discuss climate change, Transparency International will call on officials to make sure the people managing and spending public finance for climate change will be held accountable – in developed and developing countries.
Why? Future generations and the environment cannot afford that the money is misused, mismanaged, and even worse lost to corruption, fraud. Nor can the people facing climate disasters today.
When funds for flood defences in one small community in coastal Bangladesh were misused, sea walls were built too low and too weak. The villagers still live knee-deep in stagnant water that also ruins their crops. If the community had known what was happening – how much money was allocated and for what --it is unlikely they would have allowed sub-standard work to go on.
"Efforts to help developing nations adapt to climate change are doomed to failure unless good governance and ethics are integral elements of financial assistance.”
Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
These are basic recommendations from Transparency International and when money is being dispersed to fight the negative impacts of global climate change, governments meeting at the climate change summit in Durban need to take into account citizen engagement, public disclosure, independent oversight and accountability.
Making climate money count
Robust transparency guidelines will be especially important if developed nations move forward with the massive Green Climate Fund – a fund fed by donors around the world. The fund’s mandate, how it will be governed and operations are still up for debate. Given the potential power invested in it, it is vital the money be:
(a) Spent efficiently, effectively and equitably, free from potential abuses for private gains.
(b) Reach the people and purposes for which it is intended.
Resources
Read our recommendations for governments in Durban here
Transparency International’s Global Corruption Report: Climate Change
Blog posts about climate change and forest governance
Press contact(s):
Alice Harrison, Communications and Advocacy Coordinator
+27 82 858 2359
aharrison@transparency.org
