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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | As weather patterns get unpredictable, nations must start budgeting for natural disasters

As weather patterns get unpredictable, nations must start budgeting for natural disasters

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published Published on Nov 9, 2012   modified Modified on Nov 9, 2012
-The Economic Times

It's extreme weather season in Asia again. Deadly cyclones, blinding rain, floods and mudslides are becoming the norm from Nepal to Fiji. The world's policymakers must reflect on extreme weather patterns while budgeting their nations' finances.

In Thailand last year's floods caused losses of $46.5 billion. Reconstruction costs will reach at least $50 billion, according to the government and UN's assessments.

In Pakistan widespread flooding two years ago affected 20 million people. Damages estimated by the World Bank reached $10 billion, with reconstruction calculated at $9 billion.

How can countries find funds today to build climate resilient roads, bridges, schools and other vital infrastructure to prevent losses tomorrow? How can they prepare for a time when the only certainty is uncertainty?

One answer is more international finance under the principle of common but differentiated responsibility. This means that developed countries should take the lead in combating climate change and its adverse effects. They are more likely to have the technical and economic capacity to address climate change, whereas developing countries may not.

Another part of the answer lies in developing countries taking a look at how climate change is reflected in their own budgets and expenditures. While the world debates who should cover the costs of reducing carbon emissions or adapting to climate risks, developing countries themselves are responding to climate change by examining their own resources from their existing budgets.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has begun work with some countries in Asia - Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal, Samoa and Thailand - to help them to undertake a Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review. More than 20 countries sent representatives to a UNDP and World Bank workshop in Bangkok last week to learn how the approach works.

This means looking through the national budget to identify where climate change is already influencing allocations. For example, how much is being allocated to strengthen infrastructure so it is resilient to increased flooding? Or spent to adapt agricultural extension services to help poor communities in areas with increased risk of drought? Or to reform the energy sector to reduce carbon emissions?

Traditionally, ministries of finance have not reviewed their budgets from a climate finance perspective. So, existing climate-related expenditures are not always evident or visible to national leaders, politicians and decision makers.

With a better understanding of how much and where existing national budgetary resources are going on climate change, more informed choices can be made about how and where to channel additional resources, or how to realign funds that are already being spent.

For example, the Nepal climate expenditure review signalled the need to channel more funds to local agencies that are better placed to deal with climate challenges, rather than continue to channel most of the resources to national authorities.

In Thailand, the climate expenditure review has helped to show how fiscal measures, such as a carbon tax, might be introduced to promote the government's energy conservation aims, and to leverage much needed private capital.

In all countries, these studies have pinpointed which sectors are receiving the most climate funding, and how much is coming from domestic versus international sources. They are also useful in charting trends like changes in the proportion of climate spending in overall public expenditure.

These reviews can also help target increased international climate finance, by ensuring that it is better aligned with national planning and budgeting. One of the main criticisms of traditional overseas development assistance is that it is fragmented, of limited impact, and not sufficiently in line with national priorities. There is an opportunity to avoid these same mistakes in new international funds that will provide climate finance, such as the Green Climate Fund.

Climate expenditure reviews try to solve a common problem that ministers of finance face. How do you make sense of the need to resolve challenges that are going to affect peoples' lives in 40 years, by spending money now? Where does one spend, how does one find the money, and how is it put into normal national planning and budgetary processes?

By building more climate resilient infrastructure today, countries can save money in the long run. International climate finance can help, as countries may not have the money up front. This type of international finance can assist countries as they realign their own budgets.

This is not only a matter of new funds changing hands, but also of realigning existing funds, of new ideas changing old ways, and ultimately, of investing today for a safer tomorrow. Global policymakers may not be able to change the climate, they could help countries build resilience to better deal with it.

(The author is UN Assistant Secretary-General and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific)

The Economic Times, 9 November, 2012, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/comments-analysis/as-weather-patterns-get-unpredictable-nations-must-start-budgeting-for-natural-disasters/articleshow


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