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When South Korea was picked last October to host the UN Green Climate Fund (GCF), its Finance Ministry was full of excitement as it was the first secretariat office of a major international body stationed in the country.
Then South Korean Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan told reporters following the decision that the UN environment fund can meet its initial target of 100 billion U.S. dollars per year by 2020. The municipal government of the host city Incheon, the country's western port city, expected the climate finance to rise to as many as 800 billion dollars in total, almost the same as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Those hopes were dashed in a year as witnessed in the 19th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Warsaw, Poland in mid-November.
The fortnight of climate change conference, which brought together senior officials from more than 190 countries, failed to go a step forward to help developing countries adapt to extreme climate events such as Typhoon Haiyan as developed countries refused to specify how to commit "a very significant scale" of public funds to the GCF.
Seoul's Finance Ministry told foreign correspondents last Friday that although it will take time to gather a majority opinion among the parties, a win-win solution for both developed and developing countries could be reached to increase funding to the GCF.
"Climate change has a historical responsibility as it came in the course of industrialization that poured carbon into the air by burning fossil fuels," Yoo Gwang-yeol, director general for international financial cooperation bureau at South Korea's Finance Ministry, told reporters.
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which passed its first deadline in 2012, obliged the historically high emitters such as the United States and Europe to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. But, it is set to be changed into a deadline that forces both historical emitters and new emitters to reduce emissions from 2020.
The climate change talks in Warsaw reached a deal that would require the world's 190 or so countries to set their own targets of cutting emissions, which will be signed at the 21st UNFCCC session to be held in Paris in late 2015.
"Under the post-2020 agreement, both developed and developing countries will reduce emissions. The GCF was be launched to help developing countries adapt to the new climate change situation," said Yoo.
If the historical emitters refuse to commit public funds to the GCF, developing countries may not agree to bring down emissions, so many developed countries will contribute to the climate finance, Yoo noted.
South Korea took the lead as the host by pledging to provide 40 million dollars to the GCF until 2017 despite its developing country status, which means Seoul has no obligation to do so. Seoul also promised to offer 1 million dollars per year for seven years through 2019 to support operations of the GCF secretariat office.
The ministry said that some developed countries, including Germany, Norway and Britain, expressed their support to the climate finance contribution, noting that the G77 coalition of developing nations, including China and India, called for rapid finance of the GCF at the Warsaw conference.
"Many advanced nations hope China could contribute to the climate finance, regardless of how much it will pay, as its contribution will have a very symbolic influence on the financing, " a Seoul government official who declined to be identified told Xinhua.
Heads of international organizations showed enthusiasm towards the climate finance. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon offered to hold the climate change summit in September 2014 on the sidelines of the next year's U.N. General Assembly to help the GCF funding gain momentum.
Jim Yong Kim of the World Bank and Christine Lagarde of the IMF will attend the opening ceremony of the GCF secretariat slated for Wednesday at the Songdo international business district in the country's western port city of Incheon.
The two heads will join the climate change forum, which will be held on the sidelines of the ceremony, along with chiefs of the UNFCCC and the GCF under the moderation of South Korean Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok.
"Kim has described sustainable development and climate change as heads and tails. Lagarde will talk about the finance of the GCF. Hyun will serve as a moderator at the forum. It has a very symbolic meaning," said Yoo at the Seoul's Finance Ministry.
