Sweden Gives Millions of US Dollars for Adaptation to Climate Change – Will it be Enough?

POZNAN, Poland, December 12 /PRNewswire/ — Yesterday at the Climate
summit in Poznan, the Swedish government announced that it will provide USD
500 million to help developing countries to prepare, plan for and cope with
the effects of climate change. However, while the Swedish contributions are
significant, they are still insufficient to meet the adaptation needs of
developing countries.

This contribution, combined with earlier pledges to the World Bank and
European Union, confirms the Swedish commitment to support developing
countries in their efforts to address climate change and its impacts.

However, while the Swedish contributions are significant, they are still
insufficient to meet the adaptation needs of developing countries.
Independent studies published last year by the World Bank, Oxfam, the UN
Development Programme and the UN Climate Change Secretariat show that the
investment needed for adaptation in developing countries lies between USD
10-100 billion dollars per year.

“While the announcement by Sweden is very welcome, it is clear that there
will still be a significant shortfall in funding for adaptation. Developing
countries should not have to rely on voluntary contributions from a few rich
countries to be able to address a problem for which they are not
responsible”, says Richard Klein, climate policy analyst at the Stockholm
Environment Institute, “Developing countries are becoming impatient, and
increasingly see this as an issue of justice and human rights. They wonder,
after all, why hundreds of billions of dollars can be found to save a few
banks and yet a fraction of this amount is not available to save the many
lives at risk from climate change.”

One way of raising the necessary amounts of funding for adaptation is by
auctioning emission rights to industry, and using part of the proceeds to
support adaptation in developing countries. Norway has submitted a proposal
to the international climate negotiations to this effect, and this approach
is already being put to the test in Germany.

Klein says, “It is smart to use the carbon market to raise funds for
adaptation, because it can create new and additional funds rather than
diverting money from other priorities. It would also apply the
‘polluter-pays-principle’, which is widely accepted in other environmental
policy fields.”

    Notes for Editors
    Sweden has previously pledged:

    - SEK 600 million to the Climate Investment Funds of the World Bank, and

    - EUR 5.5 million to the Global Climate Change Alliance of the European
      Union (the only European country to contribute so far)

The need to adapt to climate change has arisen largely because rich
countries like Sweden have relied heavily on fossil fuels to fuel their
development. Developing countries have had a negligible contribution to the
climate problem. For example, all of Africa is responsible for less than 3%
of global CO2 emissions to date, while Sweden alone has contributed 0.37%.
The United States are responsible for almost 29% of global emissions to date.

For more information and analysis on financing adaptation to climate
change, please consult the attached policy brief.

Stockholm Environment Institute is an independent, international research
institute specializing in sustainable development and environment issues.
From fundamental research at the cutting edge to capacity building with
developing countries, our goal is to bridge science to policy.

Media enquiries: Robert Watt, robert.watt@sei.se, +46-73-707-85-89

SOURCE Stockholm Environment Institute