Britain and other rich countries are expected to formally pledge $10bn (£6bn) in climate. According to observers, this commitment represents a backward step on earlier climate finance transfers. Countries are expected to offer around $10bn to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) at a meeting in Berlin. In this way, the UK will become one of the world’s largest contributors with an expected pledge of about $1bn. However, the budget of $10bn is lesser of the $10-15bn target set by the UN last year that countries would have to reach before the UN climate summit in Lima, Peru. In relation to that, an official observer on the GCF board, representing civil society from developing countries, has expressed his uncertainty about the announcement. Data reveal that the contributions include $3bn from the US and $1.5bn from Japan. The budget will be spread over four years and could be a third lower a year than was pledged for developing countries at the UN climate summit in Cancun in 2010. The observer on the GCF has highlighted that the pledge is inadequate, given the scale of the challenge. In this way, $10bn over four years for the GCF is actually a backsliding of efforts, experts add. The GCF represents a new UN institution with the aim to start distributing money next year. This institution will channel money from developed to developing countries in order to help them to adapt their cities and farming to extreme weather conditions suchas as severe floods, heatwaves and sea level rises caused by climate change. Additionally, developing countries will be helped tocut their emissions. Experts show that the GCF is expected to be the world’s premier international climate fund, with the objective of making at least $100bn available a year by 2020. According to experts, this figure represents the minimum amount of money that over 150 developing countries will need, in order to face and to avoid the alarming effects of climate change. However, this fund has already raised some concerns and doubts. For instance, developing countries are concerned about the methods of control of this fund. Additionally, these countries stress that rich countries could try to increase their investments to reduce emissions rather than help poorer countries to adapt to climate change. Although many G20 countries such as the UK, Saudi Arabia and Italy have yet to pledge their money, observers stress the importance that developing countries, including Mexico ($10m), South Korea ($100m) and Indonesia ($200,000) have offered money to this fund. In this way, some experts argue that this situation represents a positive step ahead in order to achieve a global climate deal at a climate summit in Paris in 2015. According to Athena Ballesteros, finance centre director of the World Resources Institute, these financial commitments are a strong signal that many countries are willing to reinforce their efforts to reduce emissions, helping vulnerable communities to address the consequences of climate change. The gLAWcal Team POREEN project Tuesday, 18 November 2014 (Source: The Guardian)