Talking Climate Finance In Bangkok

Discussions about how to pay for action to deal with climate change were a large part of the agenda of recent United Nations talks in Bangkok, Thailand.

On the heels of those meetings, The Jakarta Post published a Sept. 11 editorial by two policy specialists from The Nature Conservancy on the importance of developing countries getting “ready” to access, distribute, and make effective use of financial resources for climate change action.

The authors, Jorge Gastelumendi, senior advisor on international climate policy for The Nature Conservancy in Washington, D.C., and Budi Kuncoro, director of external affairs for The Nature Conservancy in Indonesia, write that getting parties to answer questions about climate finance – such as “how much,”  “from where” and “how finance should flow,” may provide momentum for progress in other parts of the negotiations.

Nations will gather for another round of UN Conference of the Parties (COP 18) talks in Doha, Qatar in late November and early December, and climate finance for developing countries is sure to be a big topic on the agenda.

The Nature Conservancy recently released a paper, Climate Finance Readiness: Lessons Learned in Developing Countries, which provides analysis of elements that help enhance the efficiency and transparency of climate finance mechanisms.

The paper includes discussion of Indonesia, where the National Council for Climate Change, as well as other key ministries, are playing important roles for effective coordination to mainstream climate change into the nation’s development priorities.

As the op-ed authors state, “…the paper tries to capture the reality of Indonesia’s and other developing countries’ efforts to create new institutions and/or organize their existing institutions to deal with the challenges posed by climate change causes and impacts, and to…deal with an increasing number of actors, projects and financial flows.”

Lisa Hayden is a blogger for The Nature Conservancy

Photo by Paul Mackie, The Nature Conservancy (A news interview takes place during the 2011 United Nations negotiations in Durban, South Africa, as protestors call for world leaders to “show the money” to those already affected most by climate change.)