Indonesia’s delegates in Cancun were less than pleased with a report from the European Union on Tuesday that said it had in 2010 provided 2.2 billion euros ($2.87 billion) in fast-start funding to support developing countries’ efforts to adapt to and mitigate climate change.
Based on the EU report, 1.06 billion euros, or 48.1 percent, was allocated for greenhouse gas mitigation efforts.
Of the rest, 735 million euros went to adaptation efforts, and 362 million euros to deforestation reduction schemes, through which developing countries were paid to preserve their forests.
More than half of the funding, 1.265 billion euros, came through multilateral channels.
Indonesia is one of the countries that benefited from the fast-start funding this year, including from a 22-million-euro microhydroelectric power project to be built in cooperation with the Netherlands.
Under the program, 300 small hydroelectric plants are planned for Sumatra, Sulawesi and Papua by 2012 to provide renewable energy to 170,000 people.
However, the Indonesian delegation in Cancun said the funding was being recycled from past promises.
Tazwin Hanif, head of the Indonesian delegation, said the bilateral agreement for the hydroelectric plants had been made a long time ago but was only now being claimed as a new climate change mitigation program.
“We don’t want any double counting, we want new funding,” he said.
Suzanty Sitorus, the Indonesian delegation’s finance representative, said the main question about funding was the implementation.
“It’s still vague — as in how much money we’re getting, how it’s being distributed, what kinds of programs it will go toward,” she said.
“We want to see and verify how much of it is new, as a requirement for fast-start funding.”
She added only funding that was issued in 2010 could be considered fast-start funding.
The fast-start funding was announced at last year’s Copenhagen climate change talks in Denmark, where developed countries committed to provide $30 billion in funding from 2010 to 2012 as an initial step to help speed up developing countries’ effectiveness in addressing climate change.
Peter Wittoeck, head of the Belgian delegation to the Cancun talks, said climate change issues had always been integrated into the EU’s development strategy, even before Copenhagen.
“The amount has increased significantly,” he said. “The EU was the largest donor of ODA [official development assistance] in 2008, with $5.1 billion, or 60 percent from the total contribution.”
Saleemul Huq, from the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development, said the EU’s contribution toward the $30 billion fast-start fund was welcome and a good start, but called for greater transparency.
“Monitoring both the level of contributions as well as the actual channels through which the funds flow is essential, and still unclear,” said Huq , who is also part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“There should be a mechanism under the UNFCCC [UN Framework Convention on Climate Change], not just by the contributors, to monitor these funds.”
He also said loans were useful for supporting mitigation efforts, but were not appropriate for supporting adaptation in the poorest and most vulnerable countries.
