OXFAM has done some under­cover report­ing and found doc­u­ments that prove that aid bud­gets could be raided for cli­mate con­trol pur­poses. The money orig­i­nally meant to go to other aid projects like health care or devel­op­ment could now be used for cli­mate change.

The raid­ing of aid bud­gets is expected to hap­pen in order to reach a deal at this week’s UN cli­mate talks in Copen­hagen. The promise of money will help to final­ize a deal, and it may not be new money from the rich nations.

From The Van­cou­ver Sun, writer Pete Har­ri­son fur­ther explains what OXFAM found.

Devel­op­ing nations want bil­lions of dol­lars a year to help them adapt to a prob­lem they say was ini­tially caused by indus­tri­alised coun­tries. The EU says poor coun­tries will need around 100 bil­lion euros ($150 bil­lion) a year by 2020, of which as much as half would come from the pub­lic purse globally.

But it has also pro­posed up to $10 bil­lion a year of “fast start” fund­ing in the three years before any Copen­hagen deal kicks in. The United States has embraced the idea of early fund­ing, but has been less forth­com­ing on long-term aid.

“The finan­cial sup­port — short or long term — is prob­a­bly the most impor­tant bar­gain­ing chip that devel­oped coun­tries have at their dis­posal when seek­ing a com­pre­hen­sive global agree­ment,” said an infor­mal paper by the Swedish EU presidency.

“For fast-start actions, exist­ing funds should be used,” added the doc­u­ment, seen by Reuters.

Oxfam said the men­tion of using exist­ing funds showed politi­cians were con­sid­er­ing tak­ing funds that have already been ear­marked for schools and hos­pi­tals, and pre­sent­ing them as new money to tackle cli­mate change.

Such funds might be used to develop drought-resistant crops, build dams to con­trol dwin­dling water sup­plies, or be spent on flood protection.

“We have been watch­ing global nego­ti­a­tions over cli­mate finance for months, and it now seems clear that pledges of fast-start money will involve can­ni­bal­is­ing exist­ing promises of over­seas aid,” said Oxfam cam­paigner Tim Gore.

“This under­cover account­ing is an attempt to win the sup­port of devel­op­ing coun­tries for a deal in Copen­hagen, which dis­tracts atten­tion from the big long-term com­mit­ments of real money that poor coun­tries need,” he added.

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