Copenhagen Climate Funds Stolen from Other Aid Programs

In last December's Copenhagen Climate Summit, developed nations promised as much as $30 billion in "fast start" aid regardless of what the final accord did or did not accomplish. These funds were meant to help the poorest nations in Africa and the Indian subcontinent where preparation work is needed much sooner than a unanimously ratified treaty could be passed. The representatives from United States and Europe claim to have found $10 billion to offer in initial funding, but recent reports indicate that at least some of this money will come from other international aid programs that were either reduced or folded up. Britain admitted that the fast start climate change money toward their development assistance quotas for poor nations.

This precedent may send ripples through the respective Congresses and Parliaments of contributing nations, who may choose to simply rename and retarget existing aid programs currently focused on education, health, and poverty rather than take on the costs of creating a climate aid program with new funding. Britain has openly admitted that their announced funds will both count toward their development quota and use money repurposed from other humanitarian programs. "The fast start financing will count as ODA." said a British spokesperson for the Department for International Development. The spokesperson admitted that the funding would largely be sourced from existing programs, which "includes some already existing commitments." The United States is yet to craft an aid package to match promises made in Copenhagen, though aid groups fear it will follow the same trend as its European partners.

Humanitarian groups are outraged by what they call a perversion of the original promises. In an interview with The Guardian, Tim Jones of the World Development Movement said that "Over half of the money announced by the UK in Copenhagen had already been announced, allocated or spent. At least one-third of it will be loans, increasing unfair debts channeled through the undemocratic and mistrusted World Bank." Jones also pointed out how many of these funds were "stolen" from the starving poor of the world and channeled into unlikely countries simply because they "demonstrated a commitment towards tackling climate change."

In addition to the conflict behind fast start climate funding, the January 31st deadline for nations to submit their climate action plans, as defined by the Copenhagen Accord, has been postponed. This decision was described by UN IPCC director Rajendra Pachauri as "a practical necessity."