Reluctance to commit to contributing to Green Climate Fund is criticised by Oxfam and World Vision as US leads the way

Australia has been labelled a “blocker” for being the main country resisting a G20 commitment to the global Green Climate Fund even as Barack Obama was using the same meeting to pledge $3bn to it.



As revealed by Guardian Australia on Saturday, Australia was holding out against pressure from Europe and the US for G20 leaders to back pledges to the fund, which helps poor countries adapt to climate change and is seen as critical to a successful international deal at a United Nations meeting in Paris next year.

A reference to “encouraging” countries to contribute to the fund remains in brackets in the draft final communique – meaning it has not yet been agreed – with the principal objections coming from Australia. It is understood the Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, and his advisers will have to decide whether to allow the language to proceed in the consensus-driven G20 process.

Oxfam’s international executive director, Winnie Byanyima, said Australia should “stop being a blocker” and risked “finding itself isolated in the world”.

World Vision’s chief executive, Tim Costello, said: “It would be a terrible embarrassment if Australia, the president of the G20, turned out to be the spoiler on this.”

As revealed by the Guardian on Friday, Obama used a speech in Brisbane to pledge $3bn to the Green Climate Fund. The president’s strong climate speech, in which he insisted nowhere had more to lose from rising temperatures than the Asia Pacific region and Australia in particular, forced the climate issue on the G20 agenda despite the host nation’s reluctance.

Abbott has previously insisted Australia would not make any contributions to the green climate fund, although it is understood the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which leads Australia’s negotiating position in international climate talks, has been considering whether Canberra should make a pledge. Sources said no final decision had been made.

Asked about the fund before last year’s UN climate meeting in Warsaw, the prime minister said: “We’re not going to be making any contributions to that.” It was reported that at one of its first cabinet meetings the Abbott government decided it would make no contributions to the fund.

More than $2.8bn has been pledged to the fund so far – including $1bn by France and almost $1bn by Germany. More pledges are expected at a special conference in Berlin on 20 November. The UK has said it will make a “strong” contribution at that meeting.

Australia also pointedly dissented from support for the fund in a communique from last November’s Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting – a stance backed by Canada.