Han Seung-soo, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on climate change, said Monday that combating climate change would involve massive shifts in investment patterns in a wide range of sectors.
Addressing a thematic plenary of the high-level event on climate change, which is being held on the sideline of the General Debate of the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly, Han said that according to the report of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, a return to current levels by 2030 would require an increase in global investments and financial flows in the range of 200 billion U.S. dollars by that year.
While the cost of adaptation to climate change is difficult to estimate, he said it is clear that several billion U.S. dollars of additional investment and financial flows would be needed.
Han noted that the report estimated additional investment in 2030 of 28 to 67 billion U.S. dollars in developing countries alone.
Unless a new course is charted, funding would be insufficient, he claimed, adding that a strengthened post-2012 regime would mean having an international climate policy that directs such investments towards developing countries and towards more sustainable options.
It would also mean having an ambitious and inclusive carbon market, with incentives that channel private funding into low- carbon, more climate-proof alternatives, the envoy noted.
He said that the key objective of increased financing must be to help countries channel direct investment towards climate- friendly technologies and to integrate climate change risk management into domestic policies and practices across the board.
For progress, questions must be answered about optimizing finance and new sources of investment, as well as about the role of public financing, carbon finance, emissions trading, regulations and other government-led initiatives, and private sector involvement, Han concluded.
The event, convened by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, is to discuss the climate challenge in order to prepare the way for remarkable negotiations in December, which seeks to determine future action on mitigation, adaptation, the global carbon market and financing responses to climate change for the period after the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol - the current global framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions - in 2012.
Four simultaneous plenary sessions on addressing the challenges of climate change on all fronts are being held on four themes: adaptation, mitigation, technology and financing.
Each session will be chaired by two heads of State, and speakers include world leaders and other delegation heads, as well as representatives of civil society and the private sector.
Source: Xinhua
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