oneworld.net)

Floods in Bangladesh (source: oneworld.net)

Last year the UK pledged £75 million to Bangladesh, often cited as one of the countries that will be hit very hard by climate change. Even modest sea level rises could flood 20% of land. The cash will be used for things like raising homes in high-risk flood areas, provide flood-resilient crops, and a national early warning system for cyclones.

However, it has been contraversial that this funding will not be additional to ODA, but come from existing DFID budgets. This is something which NGOs have been arguing against ever since financing for adaptation was set to become a reality. The argument runs as follows: since rich countries bear the bulk or responsibility for causing climate change, adaptation finance for poor countries should be over and above what has already been promised to them in terms of aid that is not related to climate.

This is a little strange, particularly since Gordon Brown’s widely praised speech last week promised that the $100bn needed every year for adaptation, would come “separately from and additional to our promises on aid”. He did leave a small loophole in there though, saying that 10% could come from existing budgets. Ministers are very good at re-announcing old money by repackaging it in a different way, but it does seem a little strange for DFID to do this so soon after Brown’s speech, despite the loophole.

Meanwhile, the Tories have not explicitly committed to Brown’s pledge that adaptation financing will be additional to ODA. It is perhaps telling that in their Green Paper on development (launched yesterday), they say they will “mainstream” adaptation, but makes no mention of a cap, like the 10% proposed by Brown.


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