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Berlin/Durban, December 2, 2011: Taking a critical examination of German climate assistance: this is the goal of a website being launched today by the three development organizations Brot für die Welt, Germanwatch, and Oxfam in collaboration with the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The website analyzes the financial assistance provided by Germany towards climate protection and adap-tation in developing and newly industrialized countries.
“This website is the first portal to provide the most important information on the kind, ex-tent, and impact of German climate finance in an clear and easily understood way,” explains Lili Fuhr, head of international environmental policy at the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The portal will regularly publish current articles on the subject of climate finance, in addition ex-ploring developments in UN climate negotiations, where the financial support of poorer countries plays a central role.
Jan Kowalzig, senior policy advisor on climate change at Oxfam, expects a contribution to more transparency in financing climate protection and adaptation in developing countries using German tax money. “This transparency is extremely important to check if Germany is meeting its pledges and promises. Also, it helps to scrutinise what programmes the govern-ment is financing and if e.g. actions in the area of adaptation really benefit the poorest and most vulnerable people and communities in developing countries.”
The website shows that Germany has presented a whole series of financial instruments and makes use of innovative techniques such as yields from emissions trading, which is some-thing we welcome, adds Thomas Hirsch, commissioner of development policy for Brot für die Welt. “But it is clear that the measures taken remain quite far behind the promises made and that no coherent overall strategy can be recognized.”
The editors of the website want to complement the portal in the near future by adding a project data bank, which on the basis of select criteria can enable a much more precise eval-uation of climate-relevant measures. Setting up this data bank depends on project data pro-vided by the German federal government.
“Transparency in matters of climate finance is essential for creating a sense of trust between industrial countries and developing countries, and is thus key to Germany’s credibility on the international stage,” explains Anja Esch, team leader for climate finance and develop-ment/nutrition at Germanwatch. “Without transparency, German climate finance escapes systematic judgment that accounts for both strengths and weaknesses. So we are hoping for a high degree of transparency on the part of the Federal Government and encourage them to provide the data required as soon as possible.”
The new website goes online December
2, 2011:
www.deutscheklimafinanzierung.de
(German) / www.germanclimatefinance.de
(English)
Contacts in Durban
Brot für die Welt:
Germanwatch:
Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung:
Oxfam:
Contact in Berlin
Germanwatch: