Canada has announced that it will invest $400 million in 2010 towards helping developing countries adapt to and fight climate change.  Environment Minister Jim Prentice made the announcement on the eve of the G8/G20 summits in Ontario, billing it as Canada’s fair share of fast-start financing promised under the Copenhagen Accord.

At the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen last December developed countries agreed to work towards $30 billion in ‘Fast Start’ finance from 2010-2012 for developing countries. They also committed to a goal of $100 billion a year by 2020 for developing countries.

“This is good news,” says Carol Thiessen, public policy advisor for the Foodgrains Bank. “It’s what we and other Canadian aid agencies have been asking for as Canada’s fair share of the $30 billion fund.”
The government has stressed that this is new and additional money, but at least some of the $400 million will be funded from the 2010 increase in the aid budget, and thus could be seen as diverting money from other vital areas for developing countries, such as health and education. The rest will be sourced from general government revenues.

The money will focus on three priorities:

• efforts to address deforestation and enhance sustainable agriculture;
• adaptation for the poorest and most vulnerable countries; and
  
• clean energy development and delivery

The Foodgrains Bank welcomes the government’s support for sustainable agriculture, while stressing that this money should be directed to small-scale farmers in particular.  More than 75% of the world’s poorest people live in rural areas, and most of these are small-scale farmers. They are most at risk of increased hunger from climate change.

“We recommend Canada support funding for efforts, such as conservation agriculture, that help farmers cope with droughts and floods while also increasing food production,” says Thiessen. “This is a win-win-win approach: it helps slow climate change, promotes adaptation, and increases food security.”
The government is not yet saying who will administer the money. Most aid agencies have called for funding mechanisms based within the United Nations, where developing countries traditionally have a stronger voice. There is also no word yet on whether the money will be given as grants, or as a mix of loans and grants.

The $400 million includes the $18.5 million that Canada committed to the Global Environment Facility earlier this spring .