USA DUA, Bali (Antara): There are still no signs that the developed nations will agree to the provision of adaptation funds as the Bali climate change talks sent into their sixth day on Saturday.

Developed nations which make up 15 percent of the global population emit nearly 70 percent of the total amount of carbon emissions blamed for causing climate change.

Small island states, which will be hit hardest by global warming reiterated their call on Saturday for developed nations to agree on the provision of adaptation funds.

“Small island states need the funds not in the too distant future but right now,” E. Angus Friday, chief of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) delegation to the United Nations Framework Convetion on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said.

He said the 12-day conference should start devising a mechanism to allocate adaptation funds to developing countries based on their respective level of vulnerability to climate change, including the calculatioon of the rise in the sea level.

AOSIS is made up of 43 small island states which are at high risk of losing their islands after the rise in the sea level over the past few years due to global warming and climate change, he said.

Such countries as Tuvalu, Maldives and Grenada have islands which lie only 1-2 meters above sea level. If climate change cremains beyond control, and the release of carbon dioxide is not curbed, small island states will sink, he said.

“The people of Tuvalu will become climate refugees if their islands sink due to a rise in the sea level,” Angus said.

He said AOSIS countries have been trying as much as they can to prevent the sinking of their islands. One of them is Maldives which has begun elevating the land surface of its islands so they would not sink.

“In Maldives, the islands lie only about 1 meter above sea level. They have begun elevating the land surface of their 14 islands by 1 meter above their present level and that is very costly,” Angus said.

Many islands in Maldives have a land surface that rise from the sea to the height of cinema seat, he said.

“To double the height of the islands land surface, some US$175 million in funds are needed for each island,” according to Angus.

Adaptation is one of the key issues up for negotiation during the Bali conference. The other issues are mitigation, transfer of technology and funding.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, adaptation funds are raised on a voluntary basis from a 2-percent levy generated from carbon trade projects for clean technology.

The funds were intended to finance concrete adaptation projects in developing countries that signed the protocol.

The results of a study made by Practical Action, a non-governmental organization, suggests that the adaptation program would cost US$50 billion per year.

On Friday, the European Union (EU) expressed optimism that the Bali climate change talks will reach an agreement on the provision of adaptation funds.

“I think the Bali meeting will yield a positive result with regard to adaptation funds,” Artur Runge Metzger, chief of the EU delegation, said.

He said negotiations on adaptation funds which started weeks ago had made remarkable progress with negotiators expressing optimism about achieving a solution acceptable to all parties.

“We also call for a framework of action on adaptation which will cover a number of mechanisms, including an effort to promote transfer of technology during the process of adaptation,” Metzger said.

US chief negotiator Harlan L Watson said on Tuesday his government was ready to support the provision of adaptation funds and transfer of technology.

Rachel Berger, climate change policy adviser working for

Practical Action, said rich countries are under a moral obligation to stop the injustice.
“It is not only a matter of assistance but also of funding poor countries to enable them to exist.”

Any negotiation on adaptation funds should give priority to those in dire need, Rachel said

“We need adaptation or we will die,” Dinanath Bhandari of the Nepal Practical Action Network said.

Source: The Jakarta Post