Ethiopia’s Meles in New York for climate finance group meeting

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

July 12, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) – Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, left Addis Ababa on Sunday for New York to take part at a meeting of the High-level Advisory Group on Mobilizing Finance for Climate Change as part of the ongoing efforts intended to mobilize financing swiftly to help developing countries combat climate change.

During the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last December, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon elected the members for the new High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing that will work to mobilize the financing promised for climate change.

Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi and the former UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, were then assigned to head up the high-level group launched by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. However Norwegian PM Jens Stoltenberg is now elected to replace Gordon Brown.

According to the Ethiopia Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Meles and Stoltenberg are expected to meet in New York and discuss on the potential sources of revenue for financing mitigation and adaptation activities in developing countries, and on ways to make progress on this key issue in the course of 2010.

The Copenhagen Accord reached at December’s United Nations conference in the Danish capital aims to jump-start immediate action on climate change and guide negotiations on long-term action, with developing countries to be given $30 billion until 2012 and then $100 billion a year until 2020.

It also includes an agreement to working towards curbing global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius and efforts to reduce or limit emissions.

(ST)