IRIN
JOHANNESBURG,
10 June 2009 (IRIN) - A complex but critical issue is being raised at
the UN climate change talks in Bonn, Germany: finding a scale that
determines how vulnerable developing countries are to climate change,
which will help allocating funds to adapt fairly.
Jan Kowalzig, of the UK-based development agency, Oxfam, told IRIN that
the need for a vulnerability index would have to be agreed as a
principle, because "it is the link between adaptation and the financing
mechanism".
He said the idea should be accepted by all countries and included in
the final global climate deal to be made in Copenhagen, Denmark, in
December. It will become effective after 2012, when the first phase of
the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions, lapses.
Measuring vulnerability was raised on the third day of the Bonn talks
by the representative of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the
financial mechanism of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC), who said the facility was examining a possible vulnerability
index to fairly distribute resources.
GEF manages two special funds under the UNFCCC: the Least Developed
Countries Fund, and the Special Climate Change Fund, which both
disburse funds for adaptation projects.
But the big money is expected to come from the Adaptation Fund, also to
be operated by GEF, which will raise money from a levy of about two
percent on credits generated by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
set up under the Kyoto Protocol.
The mechanism allows industrialized countries to earn and trade
emission credits by implementing projects in developed countries or
developing ones, and put the credits towards meeting their greenhouse
gas emission targets.
Which one?
It
can get extremely difficult: there could be debates for instance over
whether countries where large numbers of people are affected should be
prioritised
"The principle is a good one, as you need a method to prioritize
funding," said Saleemul Huq, head of the climate change group at the
London-based International Institute for Environment and Development
(IIED), but there were several indices to choose from.
"It can get extremely difficult: there could be debates for instance
over whether countries where large numbers of people are affected
should be prioritised - like India - or a country like Tuvalu [a
Pacific Ocean island], where the numbers are small but the country is
extremely vulnerable to sea level rise."
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international scientific body, said in its Fourth Assessment Report
that the vulnerability of a society to climate change was influenced by
its development path, physical exposures, distribution of resources,
prior stresses, and social and government institutions.
"All societies have inherent abilities to deal with certain variations
in climate, yet adaptive capacities are unevenly distributed, both
across countries and within societies," the IPCC report pointed out.
Experts said the Environment Vulnerability Index (EVI)
developed by the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC),
and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and their partners, could be
used for the purpose.
The EVI uses 50 wide-ranging indicators, such as dry periods, high
winds, conflicts and population, to identify the most important factors
affecting the vulnerability of states, and to prioritise actions for
the whole range of natural and human hazards that can affect the
environment.
Ursula Kaly, who works on the index project, said the EVI had a
sub-index for climate change. If this were used to measure a country's
vulnerability, "it would not require any modification other than
updating the data – the EVI was envisaged as being recalculated every
five years, with the last calculation at the end of 2004."
What is vulnerability?
The 2007 Human Development Report of
the UN Development Programme (UNDP) described "vulnerability" in the
context of climate change as "an inability to manage risk without being
forced to make choices that compromise human well-being over time."
The term "vulnerable" originates from a Latin word, meaning "to wound" either physically or emotionally.
The IIED's Huq said the debates on which of the many indices to use
could take a political turn; Oxfam's Kowalzig commented that "these are
technical issues, which can be dealt with after Copenhagen."
jk/he
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