Column : Doha’s second chance

3. The Green Climate Fund, a grand idea agreed to in 2009, is supposed to channel $100 billion a year to developing countries by 2020. The fund is scheduled to start operating from 2013 and wealthier nations are being urged to pledge money, but the pot remains relatively empty. And, hugely political; the only significant decision so far has been that South Korea will host the fund.

That said, Doha is set to decide how and when the GCF will be financed, though success is debatable considering that none of the discussions so far have explored how to source private capital.

In addition, the idea of such a fund was born under a negotiating group whose job was to deliver a grand deal in Copenhagen 2009, but the group didn’t manage to do that. Its noise, however, lingers on and hopefully Doha will put this group to rest.

4. And finally, REDD, the emerging promise for curbing deforestation. Deforestation and land degradation currently account for over 15% of global emissions, and the Kyoto Protocol has no way of curbing this. It provides credits for afforestation but its rules are so cumbersome that only a handful of projects have made it through the UN system.

REDD, which

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