Speaking at Chatham House in London yesterday, Rachel Kyte
warned of a “desert” emerging between funds already allocated in
‘fast-start’ climate finance, such as to the Clean Technology Fund,
and the beginning of operations of the planned Green Climate
Fund.

“There’s an urgent need for pragmatic action on climate finance
in the run up to the Durban talks [which begin at the end of
November] and just after,” she said.

“It’s crucial if we want to keep the negotiations on track.”

She said that the managers of the Clean Technology Fund, one of
two Climate Investment Funds set up via the UN climate talks, and
managed by five development banks, have fully “programmed” its $4.5
billion in commitments.

That fund has leveraged an additional $37 billion, Kyte said,
around one third of which came from the private sector.

Negiotators are hopeful that the rules setting out how the Green
Climate Fund will operate will be agreed at the Durban Conference
of the Parties to the UN climate change convention.

That fund is intended to channel the $100 billion a year by 2020
that governments pledged at the 2009 Copenhagen climate talks to
developing countries.

Kyte argued that, despite the difficult economic conditions,
there is the potential to raise and deploy significant capital to
help poor countries adapt to the effects of climate change, and
mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. “Capital is tight, but it can be
leveraged effectively,” she said.

“The message is clear - the time for
testing and experimenting is over. There’s no magic in climate
finance,” she said. “What’s missing is the political
will.”

Also speaking at the event, Christiana Figueres, executive
secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said
that officials meeting in Panama last week got “almost there” in
agreeing “a draft operational document” for the Global Climate
Fund, for the Durban meeting to approve.