Norway reaffirms intention to double contribution to climate fund

UNITED NATIONS, March 29 (Xinhua) -- A senior Norwegian official on Friday reaffirmed her country's intention to double its contribution to a climate fund to help developing countries.

"Public climate finance is clearly critical to meeting the 100 billion U.S. dollars goal by 2020. An ambitious replenishment of the Green climate Fund this year is part of that effort. Norway has already announced that we intend to double our contribution to the Fund," Mona Juul, permanent representative of Norway to the United Nations (UN), told a UN high-level meeting on the Protection of the Global climate for Present and Future Generations of Humankind.

The Green climate Fund is a fund established in 2010 under the UN Framework Convention on climate Change (UNFCCC) as a mechanism to assist developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change.

Increased support and climate finance to developing countries are necessary for the effective implementation of the Paris agreement, Juul said.

"For many years, Norway has supported climate action in developing countries," she said, adding that Norway has a particular engagement in renewable energy, oceans and promoting reduced emissions from the forest and land use sector.

"Through our partnerships, we have shown that reduced deforestation can be combined with increased agricultural productivity," she said.

Evidence of global warming is also obvious in the Arctic region, she said, and the impact of Arctic climate change will have profound local, regional and global implications.

"Natural disasters are occurring more frequently, as we have recently seen in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe," said Juul, adding that the existence of small island developing states is threatened. Enditem