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Investment fund tops $10bn as UN conference sets stage for global climate deal


The capitalisation of an international fund designed to help developing nations boost investment in energy and infrastructure to meet climate change goals has reached the equivalent of $10.2 billion.

The boost to the Green Climate Fund (2-page / 192 KB PDF) was announced as United Nations members concluded a climate change conference in Lima, Peru on 14 December.

Delegates at the Peru conference approved a framework for setting national pledges to be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties in Paris on 15 December 2015.

UK secretary of state for energy and climate change Ed Davey said: “This is an agreement that unites all nations, unlocking the door to the world’s first global climate deal in Paris next year. I am proud the UK has been leading the way, by our laws on low carbon energy and climate, by successfully championing ambitious targets to cut emissions in Europe and with our central role here in Lima.”

According to the UK business lobbying organisation the CBI,  “the global green market in low-carbon goods and services, worth £3.4 trillion, affords companies to grow, invest and create jobs”.

CBI director-general John Cridland said: “For business to deliver effectively though, it needs a sure and stable policy environment in which to invest and innovate. Next year’s climate conference in Paris is the golden opportunity to create the long-term frameworks that will give business the confidence and security it needs to play its part in building a sustainable future for the next generation.”

The 195 member countries of the UNFCCC agreed in 2011 to negotiate a global legally-binding agreement on climate change by 2015, to come into force by 2020. The negotiations will conclude at the UNFCCC conference in Paris next year. The resulting agreement will be the first global climate change treaty, following on from the 1997 Kyoto Agreement which was never ratified by the US and did not include developing countries such as China.

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