The Federal Government will commit to the UN Green Climate Fund to help developing nations deal with climate change.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced in a joint statement that the Federal Government will provide $200 million over four years to the UN Green Climate Fund, which will come from the foreign aid budget. Bishop is currently at the UN Climate Change Conference in Lima, where the announcement of the Federal Government’s contribution will be made, later today.
This announcement follows the criticism of the Federal Government’s resistance to including the Fund on a G20 communique and refusal to join other global leaders in raising money for the measure at the Berlin GFC conference last month. While the announcement has been welcomed, it has also been criticised for taking the contribution from the foreign aid budget.
The United States and Japan have also contributed US$3 billion and US$1.5 billion to the fund respectively. Canada and The UK will also be contributing to the Fund. Australia’s contribution bring the total of international contributions to US$10 billion.
Abbott and Bishop also stated that the Federal Government’s pledge to the Fund will facilitate private sector economic growth in the Indo-Pacific region with a focus on investment in infrastructure, energy, forestry and emissions reductions programs. Abbott and Bishop also revealed that a taskforce will be established in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to review Australia’s post-2020 emissions reduction targets.
More information on the UN Green Climate Fund can be found here. More information on the UN Climate Change Conference in Lima can be found here.
Image via Pixabay.