Of the $30 billion promised to developing nations by developed nations to combat climate change at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, only $7 billion has definitely been given, according to research compiled for a September report on countries' transparency levels in committing the funds.
Developed nations have reported the $7 billion, but "there's no way to assess how much money they have actually given," said David Ciplet GS, who co-authored the report with Timmons Roberts, director of the Center for Environmental Studies and professor of environmental studies and sociology.
A more transparent system would allow developed countries to see that others are also meeting their promises, reassure tax-payers that governments are not wasting money and allow researchers to measure what effect, if any, these efforts have on combating climate change.
According to the Copenhagen Accord, developed nations have until 2012 to fulfill their commitment to developing nations. Looking back at past international aid agreements, "there's a history of these broken promises," Roberts said.
The authors of the report graded each country based on the information they provided regarding their programs and the results are grim. The highest overall score was Norway's 52 percent transparency, the United States tied for fifth with Switzerland at 32 percent, and New Zealand performed the worst with 26 percent.
The grading system "set the bar pretty high," Roberts said, because the authors want developed nations "to do a lot better."
By 2020, the UN hopes that developed countries will be contributing $100 billion per year to developing nations. Without more oversight and transparency, that goal will be increasingly difficult to achieve, Ciplet said.
A major problem with the lack of transparency, Roberts said, is that developed countries are taking money from other international aid commitments and diverting it into this program. Diverted money does not count as new, and therefore by the standards of the Copenhagen Accord cannot be considered part of the pledged $30 billion. Most countries did not report a mechanism for distinguishing between new and diverted funding, according to the report.
