News | Climate Change

http://www.pia.gov.ph/news/index.php?article=771344329492

Albay province Governor Joey Sarte Salceda, also chairman of the Regional Development Council in the Philippines, has been elected to represent the developing countries in the Asia Pacific Region to the United Nations' Green Climate Fund.

The Fund is designed to help channel up to $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020 to help developing countries adapt to climate change. However, the fund is an empty shell after last year's U.N. climate talks failed to make progress on sources of finance and the global economic crisis has left rich nations reluctant to commit cash, prompting fears the money may not emerge in time. The board's first meeting will be held in Geneva, Switzerland on August 23 to 25 and will start work on the board's organization and operations and the fund's first workplan, an official at the fund's interim secretariat confirmed on Thursday. "We are ready and set to go for the first board meeting in Geneva," Henning Wuester, senior manager at the fund's interim secretariat, told Reuters. "We hope to have at least one more meeting before Qatar," he added, referring to an additional board meeting which could take place before a major U.N. climate conference in Doha starts on November 26. One of the key issues for the board this year will be selecting the fund's host country. Germany, Mexico, Namibia, Poland, the Republic of Korea, and Switzerland have all made official requests to host the fund. A decision on which country will be the host will be presented to the Doha meeting at the end of the year, the interim secretariat said in a statement on Thursday. Disagreements about who should sit on the fund's governing panel have delayed its first meeting to five months later than it was originally planned. Originally set to take place in April, the meeting was postponed three times as regional groups of countries threshed out which nations would represent them on the board, which will have 24 members and 24 alternatives coming equally from both developing and developed countries. There were fears that any further delays in the board's organization could slow the process towards the fund's launch, which is expected in 2013, as well as run the risk of undermining U.N. climate talks in Qatar. The meeting was first pushed back until the end of May after European Union countries disagreed over the allocation of seats to its member states. Thirteen countries requested a seat, wanting to ensure they have a say in the funding decisions. The meeting was then delayed a second time in May and finally pushed back to the end of August after the fund's interim secretariat awaited nominations from the Asia, Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean regions. "The secretariat finally received the last of those nominations on August 1, 2012" Wuester said. Governor Salceda was endorsed by President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III to the Dr. Mohammad Salim Al Sabban, Coordinator of the Asia Pacific regional group of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on March 26, 2012. Prior to his seat in the Green Climate Fund, Salceda is also a member of the National Economic Development Authority Board Regional Development Committee, Member of Council of Advisers of League of Provinces of the Philippines and Member of the Philippine Delegation to the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change since 2006 to present. He received an award as the First UN-ISDR Senior Global Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change. (MAL/RR-PGA)