Six Asian nations in Green Climate Fund panel

China, India, Pakistan, the Philippine, Singapore and South Korea have all been selected by the UN Climate Secretariat from a pool of nominees to sit on panel that will design the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The panel was picked during last week's UNFCCC Conference of the Parties session in Bangkok.

The GCF is being established under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to finance efforts by developing countries to adapt to climate change and reduce carbon emissions. Its steering panel is composed of 15 developed and 25 developing countries representing the UNFCCC 193 members.

Likely tensions between donor and recipient nations about GCF's design are already evident.

Philippines climate change commissioner, Naderev Sano told BusinessWorld that it was important for funding of at least USD100 billion a year will available and easily accessible to the 130 developing countries in the UNFCCC.

He said the Philippine, along with other developing representatives, will lobby for the exclusion of multilateral agencies from the management of the GCF.

"We do not want the funds to be coursed through other agencies - namely, the World Bank - to eliminate transaction and administrative costs. Most of all, we also want the funds to be awarded as grants, not loans, to encourage developing countries to commit to carbon emission reduction," he stressed.

There are also plans to make GCF beneficiaries accountable to the entire UNFCCC instead of a special committee tasked to assess the effectiveness of fund use.

The GCF's preliminary design is due to be approved in a UNFCCC meeting in Durban, South Africa from November 28 to December 9. A governing board of 25 representatives will subsequently be formed to oversee the fund.