Tearfund welcomes Cancun climate agreement but says more funding necessary

Christian development agency Tearfund has welcomed an agreement reached by political leaders in Cancun to address climate change but says more funding is needed to get it off the ground.

Political leaders were able to agree a package in the early hours of Saturday morning after two weeks of haggling at the UN climate talks in Cancun.

The agreement includes a multi-billion dollar fund to help developing countries meet the costs of adapting to climate change and acknowledges the need for further reductions in carbon emissions.

Under the Green Climate Fund, poorer nations will receive $100bn (£64bn) a year to finance adaptation measures and pursue low-carbon development.

There are questions over the extent to which the agreement is legally binding but it still represents a step forward from the failed talks in Copenhagen last year by being the first UN document on climate change to be undersigned by all countries, with the exception of Bolivia which protested that carbon emission cuts are not enough to address the climate change problem.

Tearfund welcomed the agreement but expressed concerns over funding. It said the positive language on adaptation would only be worthwhile if it was linked to increased funding, and at least half of that going towards adaptation.

The agency’s head of policy Laura Webster said Cancun had managed to “resuscitate” climate talks but that a fair and binding global deal on climate change would require “a lot more urgency” from developed countries on climate finance and emissions reductions.

“The wheels have been set in motion and key principles for a climate fund have been agreed,” she said.

“Moving forward we need to see money in the fund to ensure these wheels don’t fall off.

“Rather than inertia from world leaders, concrete measures are needed to take the recommendations forward.”