Ugandan farmer Constance Okollet, right, addressed a civil society "climate hearing" at the Copenhagen talks. (Photo Courtesy Jens Astrup/Oxfam International)

Copenhagen — The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, yesterday on behalf of the African Group proposed an annual funding portfolio of between $50 billion to $100 billion as part of financial commitment by developed countries to help address urgent adaptation, mitigation tasks and other climate change issues.

Another proposal put forward by Africa and which Zenawi hoped would win the support of other parties is that climate fund be managed by the African Development Bank (ADB) under a board of trustees instead of being controlled by the World Bank.

The financial plan would be a long term taking effect from 2015 and 2020.It will also be utilised for forestry and preparation for more ambitious programmes in the future.In a statement, Zenawi who is leading the African Group at the climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, said the continent is also supporting the establiment of a start-up fund of $10 billion per annum for three years to run from 2010 to 2012.However, this latest demand by African negotiators has attracted sharp criticisms from an independent observer group, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CA-FOD) which saw the decision to back-slide from a $400bn annual funding to $100bn as a major blow and a sign of a weakening position by Africa.

Speaking yesterday at the COP15 high-level segment at the ongoing 15th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC), Zenawi said that the start-up funding money should be put in a trust fund to be administered by a board of trustees composed of equal number of donor and recipient countries.He demanded that "40 per cent of the start fund be earmarked for Africa" and that "the fund allocated for Africa be administered by the African Development Bank."

He asked for the establishment of a committe of experts to work out the details of the points and also suggested the launch of the fund before the next G20 summit. Zenawi proposed a long-term finance for adaptation and mitigation starting by 2013 to reach up to $50 billion per annum by 2015 and $100 billion per annum by 2020.He said no less than 50 per cent of the fund should be allocated for adaptation to vulnerable and poor countries and regions such as Africa and the small island states.Zenawi said athough the African Group may appear to have scaled down its financial demand, the decision would serve to secure concrete commitment by developed countries towards sustainable funding support for adaptation and mitigation efforts in developing countries."I know that my proposal today will disappoint those Africans who from the point of justice have asked for full compensation of the damage done to our development prospects.

My proposals dramatically scales back our expectation with regards to the level of funding in return for more reliable funding and a seat at the table in the management of such funds", he said.While criticising the new position, CAFOD in its statement by Mr. Pascale Palmer noted that the witling down of Africa's strong position on finance, is a high-risk strategy, coming at the late stage of negotiations.The Catholic group which is involved in rural development work in over 50 African countries, said: "Such a turn-around on the level of finance being asked for by Africa points to the influence of the big powers behind the scene. To slash the figure from $400bn to $100bn is a high-risk strategy. On the one hand Africa, is showing its willingness to compromise. At this late stage of the negotiations, this figure being tabled by Africa is disappointing"The Minister of Environment, Mr. John Odey while re-enforcing the commitment of Nigeria to seeing that African common position pulls through, said: "Africa is not ready to withdraw their position on Kyoto. As far we are concerned Kyoto is very important to us and we are not prepared yet at this level of negotiations to compromise on that. Our expectation at the Copenhagen summit is thatall the contents of the Kyoto Protocol should be ratified and moved to the second stage"