Climate aid from rich to poor nations at USD 62bn in 2014: Report

Paris: Rich nations have stepped up their climate aid for poorer nations, paying USD 62 billion (55 billion euros) last year, approaching a USD 100-billion annual target for 2020, the OECD said today.

Up from USD 52 billion in 2013, the figure represented "significant progress towards the USD 100 billion goal", said a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, an intergovernmental research body.

The new figures will provide fodder for finance ministers and central bank chiefs meeting in Lima, Peru this week, where climate change is high on the agenda.

Cash flows from rich countries -- both public and private -- are a make-or-break component of the 195-nation UN climate talks tasked with delivering a comprehensive carbon-cutting pact in December.

"We've come up with a figure that we do think is credible," said Simon Buckle, who oversaw the drafting of the report, the first attempt to pull together all the available numbers.
Requested by governments, the analysis lays out a much-needed framework for tracking how money earmarked for climate action moves between countries, development banks and private sources, the authors said.

Up to now, the lack of clarity on whether money was public or private, in the form of grants or loans, or earmarked for greenhouse gases reduction or bracing for climate impacts, has blocked progress in the UN climate negotiations.

Developing nations, which have made finance a red-line issue, are wary of double-counting and the inclusion of non-climate projects in the final tally.

"The report provides transparency by breaking down the aggregate estimate of climate finance into its main financial elements," the authors said.