Last year's Copenhagen summit was generally one big failure but nevertheless the rich countries have still pledged to raise $100bn a year in climate aid from 2020 in order to help developing world. Can this really be achieved and will poor countries really get enough money to adapt to climate change?
According to the latest UN report obtaining this money will be challenging but still feasible, because UN believes that the public sector could extract more than $100bn and the private sector five times more, up to $500bn a year.
The UN report has also specified possible sources by claiming that between $2bn and $27bn could be raised from financial transaction taxes on foreign exchange, $4bn to $9bn from shipping, $2bn to $3bn from aviation, $3bn to $8bn from removal of fossil fuel subsidies and $8bn to $38bn from auctioning carbon allowances.
Putting prices on carbon emissions is still the key to success, and it has been calculated that carbon price needs to be in the range of $20 to $25 a tonne of carbon dioxide if the world wants to reach the desired $100bn mark.
Global politics is yet to achieve the desired level of political acceptability for this plan because there are still many issues between developed and developing world that need to be sorted out prior to reaching the final agreement.
Climate talks in Cancun are fast approaching, and it will be very interesting to see how far did countries progressed since Copenhagen, and whether world is finally ready to act as one in order to tackle climate change.
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