International News

PARIS, Oct 18 (APP/AFP): Rich countries, which have pledged $100 billion (91 billion euros) every year from 2020 for poor countries to deal with climate change, said Monday they were “confident” of meeting the target. Pledges made in 2015 alone would boost public finance from $41 billion in 2013-14 to $67 billion in 2020, they said in a report entitled “Roadmap to $100 billion”. This was based on calculations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and relate to funds from governments and multinational development banks, not private contributions. “It should be considered a conservative, indicative aggregation of public climate finance levels in 2020, rather than a firm prediction,” the countries said. The report, signed by 38 developed nations and the European Commission, was released in Marrakesh at a meeting to prepare for the annual round of UN climate talks to be hosted by Morocco in November. Last year’s round, in France, yielded the so-called Paris Agreement to curb global warming to under two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels. The $100 billion pledge was made at the 2009 talks in Copenhagen, where it was a major sticking point in negotiations. The hard-fought Paris Agreement, seeks to limit climate change by curbing planet-warming gases emitted by mankind’s burning of coal, oil and gas for energy and heating.