São Paulo – Establishment of a US$ 30 billion fund for development of sustainable projects, presented by the G77+China, was not well accepted by rich nations, said on Thursday (14) Brazil’s head negotiator at the preparatory committee of the Rio+20, ambassador Luiz Alberto Figueiredo. The G77 brings together developing nations, among them Brazil, and the fund’s proposal was made to try to solve one of the main impasses in negotiations in Rio: how to finance sustainable development.
According to Figueiredo, developed nations are strongly against the proposal as they are living a financial crisis. He stated, however, that the position is part of the negotiation process. “There will be no exploitation of any party. We are going to seek the best conditions possible. It is fundamental for each action to include financing means or indications for that to take place,” he said.
According to the proposal announced by the G77, the fund will have US$ 30 billion to finance sustainable projects from 2013 on and should reach US$ 100 billion in 2018. The United States and Canada were some of the countries that rejected the idea.
To comply with the engagements that will eventually be taken on by the nations at the conference, funding will be necessary. The negotiators, however, have not yet come to a conclusion about how this financing will take place. The “zero draft”, a document that serves as the basis for negotiations, forecasts, that regional fostering banks, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank support sustainability projects.
Other themes that have not yet become consensus among the negotiators are the transfer of technologies for sustainable development, the training of people to execute projects related to sustainable development, understanding of the meaning of the green economy, targets for each country to follow and the creation or not of new institutions. Countries are discussing the need for creation of a world environment agency to regulate projects in the sector, or the strengthening of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
In an interview to Radio UN, the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Antonio Patriota, warned that the concepts discussed in the conference will not get in the way of development. “We also took care for new concepts, like the green economy, not to become non-tariff barriers to trade, in conformity with investment and loans,” he said.
*Translated by Mark Ament
