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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rock_nj who wrote (182399)	12/10/2009 12:47:51 PM
From: Wharf Rat	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 362360

China is greening much faster than we are.

To: Rock_nj who wrote (182399)	12/10/2009 6:06:10 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 362360

Soros Seeks $100 Billion in IMF Funds for Green Plan (Update2)/ By Jeremy van Loon and Sandrine Rastello Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire George Soros asked the richest nations to use $100 billion of foreign-exchange reserves to finance emissions-reducing projects in poor countries. The reserves, from the International Monetary Fund, would go into a green fund to “jump start” investments in rain forests, agriculture and land use that would lower carbon-dioxide emissions, the financier said today at climate negotiations involving more than 190 nations in Copenhagen. Soros, who has already pledged to invest $1 billion he manages in clean-energy technology, said his proposal is a catalyst for industrialized countries negotiating how to finance carbon-cutting efforts in the Danish capital. “Developed countries’ governments are laboring under the misapprehension that funding has to come from the national budgets but that is not the case,” Soros, 79, said at a news briefing. “They have it already. It is lying idle in their reserves accounts and in the vaults” of the IMF. The plan Soros is proposing would be in addition to long-term funding being discussed by negotiators at the United Nations talks, he said. Poor nations are demanding 1 percent of global gross domestic product annually from richer countries to help them adapt to climate change as well as reduce their own emissions. Protecting forests and planting trees where forests have already been cut down requires money for supplies, monitoring and enforcement. Delegates in the UN-led talks are studying proposals for awarding project investors with tradable “carbon credits” -- representing the emissions avoided -- that they could sell to regulated polluters such as power plants. ‘Soros Knows’ “Soros knows the importance of long-term investment in terms of a transition to a low-carbon economy,” Jonathan Jacoby, a private-sector adviser at Oxfam, said ahead of today’s announcement. “Private investors are looking first for public capital for a down payment.” The money would be offered for 25 years to start projects in forestry, agriculture and land use, Soros said. “These are the areas that offer the greatest scope for reducing carbon emissions and could produce substantial returns from carbon markets,” he said. There will be objections to using money for financing that was meant for reserves, Soros said, without saying who may support his green-fund proposal. A drawback to the plan is that U.S. legislators must be convinced to make the reserves available, Soros said. Even without the U.S., there would be about $100 billion that other countries could free up for the fund. Because trees absorb carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas scientists blame for climate change, investments to save forests and use land in ways that avoid emissions has been backed by UN officials for more than a decade. ‘A Win-Win’ “This is a win-win opportunity for developed and developing countries to work together,” Soros said. Negotiators have been working for two years to find ways to pay poor countries about $10 billion annually to help them cope with climate change. After spending hundreds of billions bailing out banks this year and last, industrialized nations have so far failed to reach an agreement on financing to help developing countries manage global warming. The Washington-based IMF in August pumped the equivalent of $250 billion into its 186 members’ foreign reserves, acting on an April call from leaders of the Group of 20 nations to boost global liquidity. The money is denominated in what are called special drawing rights, the IMF unit of account based on the dollar, yen, pound and euro. It was artificially added to reserves and can be converted into hard currencies. Climate change “is really an existential problem for the world,” said Soros. “The fund should be invested in such a way that it could potentially provide a return.” To contact the reporters on this story: Jeremy van Loon in Copenhagen via jvanloon@bloomberg.netSandrine Rastello in Washington at srastello@bloomberg.net Last Updated: December 10, 2009 06:32 EST