Prime Minister to head up UN climate change finance group

Greenwise Staff

15th February 2010

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to chair a new UN climate finance group with his Ethiopian counterpart Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi joined UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to launch the High Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing in a live videoconference on Friday (February 12).

The aim of the group is to mobilise financing promised for developing countries during the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

The group, which will also include heads of states and government, high-level officials from ministries and central banks, as well as experts on public finance and development, will be expected to come up with “innovative” long-term sources of finance – both public and private – to fill the gap in international climate finance. It is estimated $100 billion a year of public and private finance will be needed by 2020 to help developing countries adapt to climate change.

The UK Prime Minister described the task of the group as “daunting”, but “one of the most important we face”.

“I very much look forward to working with Prime Minister Meles and the members of the advisory group in the task that I believe is one of the most important we face – combating climate change by ensuring that the poorest countries have the finance that is necessary to do so,” he said. "If we can resolve this problem then I believe many of the other challenges of climate change can be resolved. So the task before us, while daunting, is a very important one to the future of the environment of the world."

The group will be expected to produce a final report containing recommendations before the next Conference on Climate Change in Mexico later this year.