PORT OF SPAIN – Commonwealth leaders meeting here yesterday reported a breakthrough with agreement on the need for early financial resources for the countries most vulnerable to projected catastrophes from climate change.

President Jagdeo at the press conference yesterday

They support the establishment of, as part of a comprehensive agreement, a Copenhagen Launch Fund starting in 2010 and building to a level of resources of US$10 billion annually by 2012.

President Bharrat Jagdeo told reporters here the US$10 billion fund should be seen as interim financing for climate change.

“…we must not lose sight of the main financing proposal”, he said, adding that studies have shown that it would take about one per cent of global GDP (about US$300 billion) to deal with adaptation, mitigation and technology transfer related to the impact of climate change.

“We prefer to see this as interim financing pending the expiration of the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol but without losing sight of the larger sums that it would take to address the significant issues of adaptation, mitigation and technology transfer”, he said.

President Jagdeo noted that for example, the World Bank has estimated that adaptation needs of the AOSIS (Association of Small Island States) countries at between US$75-US$80 billion per annum “and we are talking about ten billion”.

He expects some of the financing from the fund will support mitigation options, including interim financing for Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) which Guyana and other rainforest countries are pursuing, and the work done by the Informal Working Group set up after the G20 meeting in London in April this year.

Mr. Jagdeo said that while “we are happy for this offer of interim financing we need to make sure that this doesn’t replace the call that has been made already for resources of the magnitude to address the problem.”

While specifics are still to be worked out, Guyana is likely to be among countries to benefit from the fast start funding decision which is embodied in a declaration adopted by the 53-member group which includes Australia, Britain and Canada.

Guyana on November 9 signed a milestone memorandum of understanding with Norway which pledges US$250 million over five years in support for Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) and is anticipating further financial backing from the global climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark next month.

In the declaration, Commonwealth leaders said they recognise the need for an early start to the provision for financial resources.

“Fast start funding, constituting grant funding, should provide substantial support for adaptation, REDD Plus and clean technology”, the consensus says.

“Fast start funding for adaptation should be focused on the most vulnerable countries. We also welcomed a proposal to provide immediate, fast disbursing assistance with a dedicated stream for small island states, and associated low-lying coastal states of AOSIS of at least 10% of the fund”, the declaration states.

It adds: “We also recognise the need for further, specified and comparable funding streams, to assist the poorest and most vulnerable countries, to cope with, and adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change. We recognise that funding will be scaled up beyond 2012.”

Climate change has taken centre stage at the summit which opened Friday and is scheduled to end today.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Denmark Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen and French President Nicolas Sarkozy flew here to help the push for a new global climate change deal in Copenhagen.

Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters the Commonwealth has now thrown its full weight behind Rasmussen’s efforts to get a deal at the summit he will be hosting.

Rudd, Ban, Rasmussen, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma banded for the announcement of the Port of Spain Consensus.

Manning said the 20th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) was always recognised as a potential opportunity to add value to the negotiation process that was underway moving towards a comprehensive and legally binding agreement in Copenhagen.

He noted Ban and Rasmussen have been extremely concerned about the rate at which things have been moving and “questions began to arise as to whether the objectives that we set for ourselves as a world could be achieved in Copenhagen.”

He said that a special session on climate change Friday, Ban, Rasmussen and Sarkozy made presentations and there were very extensive discussions which led to the document they released yesterday. Rudd, who led a contact group after the climate change discussions Friday, said “this is a significant and substantial document aimed to provide consensus and momentum and support for a substantial outcome in Copenhagen.”

Noting that Rasmussen has been trying to drive a leaders level process to bring about a substantial agreement in Copenhagen, the Australia Prime Minister pointed out that the Commonwealth represents one-third of human kin , some of the largest and smallest countries in the world, some of the richest and the poorest and about one-third of the total number of states who represent participating states in the UN’s climate change process.

He said Commonwealth’s conclusion about the importance of climate change financing in delivering a substantive outcome at Copenhagen deals specifically with the need for a Copenhagen Launch Fund starting in 2010.

It also builds substantially on a proposal advanced by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that has been embraced by Commonwealth nations, Rudd said.

He explained that the accord specifically seeks to provide immediate financial support to small island states – the most vulnerable states around the world today as they deal with the immediate challenges of adaptation and mitigation in the face of climate change.

Rudd said he, Ban and Rasmussen met leaders of AOSIS states. “It was an important meeting as we sought to come to terms with the real challenges facing these most vulnerable states from climate change.”

“What we are seeking to do in Copenhagen is to bring about a comprehensive, substantial, operationally binding agreement”, he said, calling the Port of Spain declaration a “most important” step.

Ban strongly welcomed the statement from Commonwealth leaders who he said have now committed themselves to the crucial global effort for consensus and results in Copenhagen.

His message to all leaders, he said, is to stay focussed, stay committed and go to Copenhagen and seal a deal in Copenhagen.

He expects Copenhagen will seal a deal that is ambitious, comprehensive and binding, and one that will satisfy the demands of science and which will have an immediate operational effect that will fast start financial support for the most vulnerable countries.

He said his meetings with leaders of AOSIS and the least developed countries have again “made me firmly convinced that we must give priority to the plight and challenges of those most vulnerable countries in their efforts to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change.”

The momentum for success in Copenhagen has been growing and is growing, he said, adding “we need political leadership at this time; we have technology; we have financing; we know what science is telling us…we need the leadership and commitment of all the leaders”.

Sharma said Commonwealth leaders are to meet today to look at supplementing the declaration. “…we have to build on it now so that all these countries who are in such dire plight know that they have a strategic friend and partner who will walk the walk with them…”

Rasmussen said the proposal for the Copenhagen Launch Fund is “very, very concrete and delivers on the very important issue of fast track funding.”

Movement on finance is indeed key to catalysing negotiations towards a Copenhagen agreement so this conclusion from a group of both developed and developing countries bodes well for an ambitious outcome in Copenhagen, he said.

Rudd said the function of the meeting on climate change was two-fold – to debate the support which should be extended to the leaders level process given by Rasmussen, and to deal with the complex challenge of climate change finance which has been part and parcel of the negotiations across states that will participate in Copenhagen for some time now.

He noted that emission targets and commitments on dangerous greenhouse gases are still to be progressed through negotiations between now and the Copenhagen meeting.

Ban said the converging opinion among the leaders is that there must be at least US$10 billion annually until 2012 before a legally binding treaty will become effective.

The declaration said Commonwealth leaders agree that an equitable governance structure to manage the financial and technological support must be put in place.

“We agree that a future governance structure should provide for states to monitor and comply with arrangements entered under a new Copenhagen agreement”, it said. (GINA)