Prague, March 22 (CTK) – The Czech Republic is to increase ten times the sum it spends on climate protection in developing countries by 2030, according to the Climate Protection Policy in the Czech Republic approved by the government on Wednesday, Environment Minister Richard Brabec (ANO) has told CTK.
At present, the government and private sources spend on the purpose roughly 173 million crowns a year, while the sum is to surge to 1.79 billion crowns by 2030.
The amount is to be increasing on average by about 115 million crowns a year.
The sum above one billion crowns is to be reached in 2025. The sum is not any binding objective, which is criticised by environmentalists.
Some money is to come from the trading in carbon credits. Along with the Finance Ministry, the Environment Ministry are to draft an amendment to the carbon credits trading law so that climate protection could be financed from the source, too.
The legislation is to be finished by the end of 2020.
According to a commitment of 2005, the Czech Republic is to contribute with 0.33 percent of its GDP, but spends roughly one-third of it in the long run.
“A well-targeted aid to developing countries which are facing the negative impact of climate change will considerably contribute to the suitable life and economic conditions of the local population,” the government report said.
“In the long run, this is also to influence the extent of humanitarian and economic migration of the people of the developing world,” it added.
Environmentalists argue that the report neglected the Czech Republic’s global responsibility for climate change.
“According to a sophisticated calculation of international development organisations, the Czech Republic’s adequate proportion in the coverage of the aid to poor countries to cope with floods, draught, hurricanes and bad crops amounts to ten billion crowns a year, but the document only proposes to give 1.8 billion and the sum is only to be reached by 2030,” activist Jiri Kozelouh, from the Friends of the Earth, told CTK.
At present, projects in Armenia, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Mongolia, Moldova, Georgia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Yemen are being implemented through the Czech Development Agency.
Roughly 70 percent of the money has been spent on adaptation projects in water management, agriculture and forestry. Czech companies have taken part in the projects.
