Unfulfilled Promises

Over $18 billion has been pledged by rich countries over the last seven years to poorer countries but less than $900 million has been released, according to data collected from the Overseas Development Institute think tank by the British daily the Guardian on Saturday, Feb. 21.

A dozen highly developed nations, including Germany, Britain, Japan and the United States, have pledged a total of $6.1 billion to a pair of World Bank climate investment funds, but no money has yet be flowed into the account books, the paper added.

The paper said the think thank's data had been confirmed by the United Nations.

Bernarditas Muller, chief negotiator for the Group of 77 developing nations and China, was told the daily that negotiations for a successor agreement on climate change to the Kyoto Protocol were being poisoned by the measly amounts of aid delivered to developing nations after leaders in the industrialized world praised their own largess.

"What (the rich countries) offer ... is derisory, the equivalent of one banker's bonus, "she said. "It's an insult to people who are already experiencing increasing extreme events."

Criticism was also leveled at developed nations for booking climate payments out of already existing aid budgets, leaving less available for education, health care and combating poverty.