Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Research finds climate change money not filtering down

Posted at 23:11 on 05 September, 2012 UTC

New research shows much of the climate change aid money pledged by developed countries three years ago is not reaching Pacific communities.

The OECD nations pledged 30 billion US dollars to kick start vulnerable communities’ work on adapting to climate change and mitigating its effects with the promise of up to 100 billion dollars by 2020.

One of the authors of the Oxfam report, Sarah Meads, says countries firstly have difficulty accessing climate change money and it then often remains circulating at government level.

“Because it’s not traditional aid, it needs to be treated as not a donor-driven model. Instead developing countries need to be given the ownership and then also work in partnership with their communities to make this happen on the ground.”

Sarah Meads says the so-called Fast Start Finance was meant to be new and additional aid but much climate change funding is instead coming from donor’s existing aid budgets.

The Oxfam report offers strategies for affected countries to improve the flow of funds.