Norway’s Stoltenberg to co-chair climate group

Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will lead the UN High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing in developing countries. He succeeds former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the group shall mobilise the resources promised at the Copenhagen Climate Summit last December.

The UN High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing photographed at a meeting in London in March. Photo: 10 Downing Street.

“To secure sufficient financing of climate actions in developing countries will be decisive in order to reach a new international climate treaty. I look forward to leading the group together with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi”, says Stoltenberg.

According to the Copenhagen Agreement reached at the end of the December summit, developed countries will raise up to 30 billion US dollar for the period 2010-2012 and a total of 100 billion dollar annually from 2020. The agreement also stated that countries will work to limit the temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius, and implement efforts to reduce or limit the emission of greenhouse gases.

The new UN climate group will draw up practical proposals for the financing of emission cuts and adaptation strategies. The means will come from the private as well as the public sector. 

In addition to Stoltenberg and Zenawi, the group includes Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo and ministers and economists from a number of countries. The group’s members represent both developing and developed countries.

The UN climate group will present its final report before the next UN climate summit, in Mexico in December this year.