JOIN USEnvironment Minister Jairam Ramesh said the US and other parties had agreed to raise $30 billion for helping poor nations most at risk of climate change. “The continued inability to deliver on fast track finance is a betrayal of the trust and the betrayal of a grand bargain at Copenhagen,” he told mediapersons after the conclusion of the sixth BASIC Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change here.
The BASIC nations include Brazil, South Africa, India and China. “$30 billion was the total commitment for 2010, 2011 and 2012. I would be surprised, if the total disbursement exceeds two digits so far,” Ramesh said at the joint press conference attended by Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission of China Xie Zhenhua, Brazilian Environment Minister Izabella Monica Vieira Teixeira and his South African counterpart Bomo Edith Edna Molewa.
Ramesh said the US ‘includes 26 million dollars funding to India’ as part of the fast track funding commitment. “My Brazilian colleague gave me example of how some funding for Brazil is included as part of the EU fast track finance. Fast track finance must meet two conditions. It must be new and additional and must be to Africa, small island states and LDCs,” he said.