Switzerland to support 'Green Climate Fund'

The Swiss Federal Council emphasised on Saturday that the selection of Songdo in South Korea as headquarters for the Green Climate Fund will have no effect on the high priority that Switzerland attaches to environmental and climate policies, in support of which it has committed itself to a large number of programmes and projects. "Switzerland will thus continue its active involvement in the work of the Green Climate Fund. In particular, as a member of the Board, Switzerland will work to ensure that the Fund takes up its operations at the earliest possible date", said the Swiss foreign ministry in a press release from its headquarters in Berne. The Swiss Federal Council strongly supported Geneva's candidacy to become host city to the Fund. Geneva and the Lake Geneva region are today already an important hub for international environmental and climate policy, where many international organizations and non-governmental organizations have their headquarters. Switzerland had also submitted an offer to host the Green Climate Fund in Geneva. Other candidates were Bonn (Germany), Mexico City (Mexico), Warsaw (Poland), and Windhoek (Namibia). The Board of the Green Climate Fund has recommended that Songdo, South Korea, be chosen as the permanent headquarters of the Fund. Geneva was also among the candidates considered. The Green Climate Fund was created to provide financial support for measures by developing countries to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the impacts of climate change. The decision on which city will host the Green Climate Fund has been made. At its meeting in Songdo, a short distance from the South Korean capital, Seoul, the Board has chosen Songdo as the future headquarters for the Fund. The decision will be forwarded as a unanimous recommendation to the Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change for formal endorsement at its next meeting, to be held in Doha (26 November to 7 December 2012). Switzerland and the Republic of Korea share a long history of cooperation in international climate negotiations and work together regularly, as Parties to the the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, in the informally organized "Environmental Integrity Group". The decision to launch the Green Climate Fund was made in 2010 at the sixteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Cancun, Mexico. It was formally established in 2011 at the Durban Climate Change Conference. Its primary purpose is to support developing countries particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. Over time, the Green Climate Fund will administer an endowment that is expected to reach into the two-figure billions, making it the world's largest climate fund. The money is to be used to support measures for limiting or reducing greenhouse gas emissions and for adapting to the impacts of climate change.