UN climate summit leader Alok Sharma says funding key to success

The president of the 26th United Nations Change Climate Change Conference used a speech in Paris to jolt richer nations into action in the last weeks before the event in Glasgow, Scotland.

The British official who will preside over an upcoming U.N. climate summit said on Tuesday that he’s losing sleep over how to get long-promised funding for poorer nations to switch to cleaner energy and cope with the worst impacts of climate change.

Alok Sharma, president of the 26th United Nations Change Climate Change Conference, used a speech in Paris to jolt richer nations into action in the last weeks before the October 31-November 12 event in Glasgow, Scotland.

Mr. Sharma said that securing the previously promised annual package of climate change funding for poorer nations “is vital to the success of the summit.” “Without finance, tackling climate change is well-nigh impossible. So developed countries must deliver on the $100 billion a year promised to developing nations. This is a totemic figure. A matter of trust. And trust is a hard-won and fragile commodity in climate negotiations,” he said.