One of the big issues that developing countries are taking up with the developed world is the amount of money that will be donated to address the effects, both present and future, to combat the effects of climate change. One of the emerging themes has also been that developed countries have very little interest in assigning numbers to the money that they will donate, or to guaranteeing that they will donate any money at all. The EU has definitely put out some guidelines of what they think the world should donate, and they have made some sounds around what they may want to contribute, but there is no hard, committed document that says that they will be donating X amount of dollars (euros).
Japan, though, is making headlines today saying that they will donate $10 billion (!) in aid over three years from now until 2012. According to a Japanese newspaper, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will unleash this little deal on the world when he goes to attend the Copenhagen conference- except, well, if word is already out then he won’t really be revealing it then, but he will make it official. It makes me think two things: One, does Japan really have that kind of money? And two: Obama! What are you going to do? Tell everyone there how awesome it is to win the Nobel Peace Prize and how you really told those bankers who’s boss last week? I mean, you are going back and forth over the Atlantic so often you’re giving a new meaning to bicoastal!

Alright, just giving a hard time. This is fantastic, and not something I expected to see coming from Japan. They have largely played a background role in climate change matters, and what they were going to do in any case has been a question as their government changed over so recently. This is definitely not the kind of move I would have expected from their former ruling party- but it appears that a new day has dawned in Japan, land, afterall, of the rising sun.

So as it stands right now, the EU is making noises about $3.5 billion a year for 3 years, Japan is coughing up roughly the same, and the U.S. is predictably balking at any kind of long term commitment and offering $1.2 billion for this year. Hey, we just got a President who actually believes in global warming, so work with us here. Some is better than none. By the end of next year we’ll be exporting our new green technologies and hedging our bets in new solar power default swaps- just give it some time!

Copenhagen is stymied right now with protests from African countries who are saying that developed countries are not doing enough to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The fact is, they are right. If developed nations would just admit that yes, they could and should do more, but we are not going to, we’ll think about it and the best you are going to get from us right now is X, I think they would respect the honesty, sign something, and we could all go home happy.

Otherwise, we may all be going home empty-handed.

Photo Credit: World Economic Forum (via Flickr under CCL)