Issue of climate financing far from being resolved

by Xinhua Writers Han Mo, Huan Gongdi

BONN, Germany, April 11 (Xinhua) -- UN climate chief Yvo de Boer on Saturday questioned the will of the developed countries to act to fund climate change.

Climate financing, a issue first mentioned decades ago, has fallen into the category of "far from resolution" in his to-do list, Boer said in Bonn, where negotiators from more than 180 countries gathered for the first round of UN climate change talks since the Copenhagen conference last year.

The outgoing executive secretary of the UN climate change secretariat told Xinhua that he divided climate change issues into three categories: the one near finalization; the one with big difference but perhaps being resolved; and the third, which is "still very far from resolution," that is, the question of climate finance.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which took effect in 1994 and has been ratified by 194 countries, contains articles of financial support for developing countries to fight climate change.

However, 16 years have elapsed and these pledges are still lying in documents, rather than being converted into actions.

The Copenhagen Accord, put forward at the last minute after marathon talks in late 2009, pledged to offer 10 billion U.S. dollars per year to poor countries in the next three years, and to increase the aid to 100 billion dollars annually by 2020.