Rich countries have utterly reneged on their promise to pay £200
million (US$410m) a year to help poor countries cope with
climate change, international development agency Christian Aid
claims. Had the promise been kept, wealthier countries would
have now contributed £584 million (US$1.2bn). The payments were
agreed in 2001 by the UK, other member states of the European
Union at the time, along with Canada, Iceland, New Zealand,
Norway and Switzerland, says Christian Aid. Due to start in
2005, new figures reveal that less than £146 million (US$300m)
has actually been pledged to the Global Environment Facility
(GEF), which funds poor countries' attempts to adapt to climate
change, and cut their own emissions. And, by the end of
September, GEF’s three operational climate change funds had only
actually received £86 million (US$177m). This "betrayal of the
poor" is highlighted in a new Christian Aid report The Human
Face of Climate Change, released in the run up to next month’s
UN climate change conference in Bal