COP18 (27/11/12) – Kelly Dent, COP18 Global Lead for Oxfam Australia talks about the key issues emerging in the first days of the talks. She says that behind the scenes tensions are beginning to show within the African Countries and the Least Developed Countries over the lack of climate finance.

She says this is a particularly important problem as the world faces a fiscal cliff, where at the end of 2012 there will be no more money pledged for climate finance and therefore no money going to poor communities to help them adapt to climate change.

She talks about the need for predictable, dependable finance at a time when many developed nations are suffering through economic crises and says that a levy on shipping or aviation and a financial transaction tax would be two possible solutions.

She warns that if the world wants to work towards a new global agreement by 2015 and have developing countries keep their faith in the UNFCCC process, then two things are needed in Doha – a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and solid commitments on finance.

She says Doha must deliver on a serious commitment on the process to pledge money and to scale up financing to $100 billion by 2020, as agreed at the Copenhagen conference in 2009.