9 December - UK co-publishes Governance paper

The Governments of the UK and three other countries have put forward ideas on how climate change finance should be raised, disbursed and governed. The joint paper co-written by the UK, Mexico, Australia and Norway provides the substantive detail that is needed to support an overarching commitments on finance and governance that will be made in the final stages of the Copenhagen negotiations.

The paper represents an emerging consensus between the four co-authoring countries about a possible structure for governance but is not the official negotiating position of any individual nations. The paper sets out some core principles, proposes a new climate fund, makes some key practical suggestions about how finance could be governed more generally, and emphasises the importance of private and carbon market finance alongside public finance.

One key issue that the paper discusses is fast-tracking funding – the need to get finance flowing immediately after a politically-binding agreement is signed.

In terms of the UK's position, the Government remains committed to the position set out by the Prime Minister in June:

- Contributing our fair share to climate financing separately from and in addition to our promises on aid and the Millennium Development Goals, as part of an ambitious international agreement;
- Capping existing aid being used to meet climate commitments at 10% and ensuring that all aid is ‘climate sensitive’; and
- Signing up to a European commitment to pay its fair share of global public finance of €22-50bn by 2020 under an ambitious deal.


More information can be found the website Act On Copenhagen.