Senior fellow David Wheeler was featured in a Business Day article on his vulnerability Index.
From the Article
PLANNING Minister Trevor Manuel says the $100bn "green fund" agreed to at the end of the United Nations (UN) 2009 climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, is all but empty.
It was on the basis of "adequate financial and technical support" to support developing countries’ climate actions that SA voluntarily committed itself at the talks to reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions 34% from 2009 levels by 2020, and 42% by 2025.
The Copenhagen Accord promised $100bn by 2020 for establishing the "green fund".
"I think we have $7bn (of the ‘fast-start finance’ $30bn that was supposed to be committed and available for use between 2010 and 2012)... and there is no detail on how to ramp from $30bn to $100bn," said Mr Manuel, who also heads Green Climate Fund.
He was addressing a Development Bank of Southern Africa workshop on how southern and eastern Africa could collaborate to address food and water security issues raised by climate change.
It was expected that the fund would be established at next UN climate change meeting, being hosted by SA in Durban later this year, Mr Manuel said.
Mr Manuel said the transitional committee set up to "determine how to raise the $100bn" saw the establishment of the fund as a "difficult, but feasible" task, but this work was bogged down in bureaucracy, "a headache for those who want product on the table".
Part of the way in which African countries could "climate- proof" their economies was to work together to grow markets, and to use the scale that the region offered to invest in regional infrastructure, Mr Manuel said. Africa is often put forward as the continent most vulnerable to climate change. But a study by former World Bank economist David Wheeler of the vulnerability of 233 nations showed China was the world’s most vulnerable , followed closely by India. The Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Burundi, Sudan and Rwanda were in the top 10.
The best way "to optimise the value of the multiple opportunities we have is by ensuring that we build strong and resilient regional economies", Mr Manuel said.
Political commitment to regional collaboration was an important starting point, but this required "matching" infrastructure so that trade products could be moved easily across borders. "We (Africa) have pretty good infrastructure in parts, but pretty knackered … in other s." SA had strained natural resources, such as water. "Already we use 30% of the total water available, and at 40% we will reach the limits of what we can feasibly and sustainably use." SA would have far wider opportunities if it worked with other countries.