BERLIN
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday pledged to double funding to fight climate change, local media reported.
Addressing the informal Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin with French President Francois Hollande, Merkel said Germany would "double its contribution to fight climate change until 2020, based on 2014 levels," according to the Deutsche Welle newspaper.
In a joint statement, the leaders said increasing funds for climate protection would be crucial to reaching a global climate agreement in Paris later this year.
“International climate funding will be decisive for the success or failure of the Paris conference,” Merkel told ministers and senior officials from 35 countries. “Developing countries have to follow a climate friendly path. But for this they need our financial support.”
There is a global goal of reaching a $100 billion climate change fund by 2020.
“Between 2016 and 2019, we will be able to increase our official development assistance by a total of 8.3 billion euros [$9.2 billion]. But we will have to do more if we really want to make this $100 billion by 2020,” Merkel said.
She added that a gap of $70 billion remained. “If we want to find a consensus for an agreement we need a road map to close this gap,” Merkel stressed.
The chancellor promised that Germany would raise the issue at the upcoming G7 summit next month.
Hollande urged industrialized countries to increase their contributions to save an agreement in Paris.
He said that action on climate change and a transition to green energy would benefit both industrialized and developing countries. “As Chancellor Merkel said, climate change is not only a threat, it can also be an incredible opportunity to develop a new development model,” he added.
Hollande also called on countries to announce their national commitments towards the goal of keeping global warming below 2C (3.6F).
“The agreement has to be a universal agreement, involving every country and it must be a binding one,” Hollande warned.
