December 2009 will see a crucial meeting in Copenhagen to agree a global climate change deal. A lot rides on the successful outcome of Copenhagen, not least preventing catastrophic climate change that would devastate the Asia Pacific region. One of the key, and often overlooked, elements of the global climate deal will be financing for developing countries to reduce their emissions and to adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change.

This seminar will explore the scale of this financing, who is responsible for providing it, and what the conditions for providing the finance should be.

The Presenter

Ms Julie-Anne Richards works for Oxfam Australia as the Climate Change Advocacy Coordinator. She coordinates Oxfam Australia’s policy and advocacy work on the issue of climate change, specifically its impact on people in developing countries and Australia’s involvement in international climate change negotiations. From 2003 to 2008 she was the Executive Officer at Climate Action Network Australia (CANA), a network of more than 50 civil society organisations. She was on the Board of CAN International in 2008 and is a regular participant in international climate negotiations.

Oxfam Australia works in 26 countries across East Asia and South Asia, Southern Africa, the Pacific and Indigenous Australia, in partnership with local communities to overcome poverty and injustice.

Photo by Jocelyn Carlin/Panos (RSPAS): Boys play with their toy boats in the tidal flood waters that have intruded the atol island of Tuvalu (March 2006)