On July 1st, the World Bank approved the Climate Investment Funds and claims that donor countries have committed $4-5 Billion.

But US contributions are far from assured, and will not be appropriated until Spring 2009, at the earliest, making us suspect that the approval was rushed through in order to be able to present this during the upcoming G8 Summit.

See Reuters article:

world-bank-approves-climate-funds-before-g8-summit-tue-jul-1.doc

The upcoming G8 Summit, which formally begins on June 6, is one of the biggest security operations in Germany’s post-war era.The German government has brought roughly 16,000 police officers and 1,100 soldiers from across the country to Heiligendamm, Germany, a small resort town on the Baltic coast where the Summit will take place. Germany also surrounded the town with a 12 kilometer long fence topped with barbed wire (see photo). The remote location and the fence are designed to keep G8 leaders in and everybody else out, even the media center is outside the wall and local demonstrations have been taking place miles away in Rostock, the nearest city to Heiligendamm. (more…)

A coalition of about 30 U.S. development and environmental NGOs called on President Bush today to stop standing in the way of a landmark deal on climate change at the upcoming G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany.The coalition, which includes Oil Change International, Friends of the Earth U.S., Oxfam America, the Sierra Club, Action Aid USA and many others, argued that U.S. intransigence is an obstacle to international efforts to avoid dangerous climate change and a threat to global efforts to fight poverty.

In an open letter to President Bush, the coalition argued that: “Over the past century, the United States and other wealthy countries have been and continue to be responsible for a disproportionate amount of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

With only five percent of the world’s population, the United States emits about 25 percent of greenhouse gases generated by human activity. Over the course of history, its responsibility is even greater. The G8 nations, which have emitted the greatest volume of greenhouse gases, have a unique responsibility to take action now not only to reduce their contributions to global warming, but also to provide assistance to help address the consequences that developing countries are increasingly facing.”

Among other things, the coalition argued that: “The world’s wealthiest countries should end domestic and international subsidies to oil and other fossil fuels and support the development of sustainable energy alternatives in developing countries.”

The coalition also argued that roughly $50 billion dollars a year would be needed to help developing countries deal with the impacts of global warming if action is not taken immediately, and that those most responsible creating the problem, such as the United States, should take responsibility for providing these funds.