Germany Sets Example, Pledges $1 Billion to U.N. Climate Fund

Aid group Oxfam has called on other rich nations to follow the example of Germany, which has promised €750 million ($1 billion) for the U.N.'s fledgling Green Climate Fund.

"This announcement ends the deafening silence we've had so far around the empty Green Climate Fund that is supposed to support poor countries in the battle against climate change.  Now others must follow suit," Oxfam Germany's Jan Kowalzig said. 

"If rich countries such as the U.S., France, the UK, Japan and others manage to collect at least $15 billion in pledges ahead of the upcoming U.N. climate negotiations in Lima at the end of the year, this could give the talks a significant boost," he added in a statement.

The announcement by Chancellor Angela Merkel [last] Monday at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin, where some 35 ministers from around the world are meeting to discuss international climate action, is the only large pledge of money for the Green Climate Fund so far.

The fund was agreed at U.N. climate talks in 2010 but has been hampered by wrangling over its design.  Now its operating rules have been settled, it will hold a first pledging conference for potential donors in the second half of November, before the U.N. climate conference in Peru.

The fund aims to help poor nations pursue clean development and adapt to climate change impacts, including more floods, droughts, heatwaves, and rising sea levels.  It is regarded as a key part of the puzzle in securing a new global deal to tackle climate change due to be agreed in Paris in late 2015.

Germany Sets Example, Pledges $1 Billion to U.N. Climate Fund