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French
President Francois Hollande gives a speech during
the
Petersberg Climate Dialogue conference in Berlin, Germany,
May
19, 2015. REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz/Poo
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A
roadmap for ramping up climate finance for developing countries to $100 billion
a year by 2020 will be essential to agreeing a new global climate change deal
in Paris later this year, the leaders of France and Germany said on Tuesday.
"Without
any financial commitment, there won't be an agreement in Paris," French
President Francois Hollande told the Sixth Petersberg
Climate Dialogue in Berlin.
"Developing
countries won't accept an agreement if they do not get any financial support
for adaptation and (energy) transition - and I am thinking in particular of
African countries," he added.
The
Gambia's climate change minister, Pa Ousman Jarju, said finance is
"key", and should be part of a package of support for developing
countries to allow them to opt for low-carbon growth.
At
U.N. talks in Copenhagen in 2009, rich countries pledged to mobilise $100
billion per year by 2020 in climate finance from public and private sources to
help poorer nations cope with worsening extreme weather and rising seas, and to
develop their economies cleanly by using renewable energy.
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a roadmap for how the world will raise the
additional $70 billion in climate funding needed to reach the $100 billion
goal, from the current level of around $30 billion.
A
summit of G7 industrialised nations in Germany in June should provide an
"important signal" for this path, she added.
Germany
supports the $100 billion goal set in 2009 and will provide its share, Merkel
said.
The
European nation plans to double its aid for climate action from the 2014 level
through 2019, as part of an 8.3 billion euro ($9.28 billion) increase in
development assistance, she added, although she did not give a precise figure.
In
2014, climate finance from the public spending budget was around 2 billion
euros, and this amount will be doubled by 2020, tweeted Jochen
Flasbarth, state secretary in Germany's environment ministry.
Private
finance and innovative means of funding will be needed alongside public money,
the French and German leaders said.
Both
Merkel and Hollande called for a global market for trading carbon emissions
that would set an international price on carbon.
GAMBIA
URGES ADAPTATION GOAL
The
German chancellor said it was important for the U.N.'s Green Climate Fund -
which has pledges of $10.2 billion so far - to select the first projects it
will back before the Paris climate talks, in order to build trust between
developed and developing nations.
"This
is really necessary because many countries needing money hear about these major
sums but if you ask them what has been disbursed, we have a lack here,"
Merkel said.
Oxfam
urged other rich countries to respond to the call for a credible plan to
boost climate support for developing nations.
The
Paris talks should also agree on how to do that after 2020, when the new deal
will take effect, including setting periodic targets, said Jan
Kowalzig, Oxfam's climate change policy advisor.
"So
far, Germany and other rich countries are highly reluctant to accept any future
commitments in this field. If this does not change, a strong new agreement in
Paris may not happen,” he added.
Both
the French and German leaders emphasised the need to increase ambition on
cutting greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit global warming to an
internationally agreed ceiling of 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial
levels.
Merkel
said Germany would propose for the Paris agreement international emissions
reductions of at least 60 percent on 2010 levels by 2050 as a "very
ambitious" long-term global goal.
The
Gambia's Jarju said vulnerable countries had a “fundamental” need to adapt to
climate impacts, and it was critical for the Paris agreement to include an
adaptation goal “to build a resilient world".
"To
get to an agreement, we must tell developing countries that we stand by
them," President Hollande said.
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