UN wastes ‘millions of dollars of climate funds’ on flights and lavish hotels
Digital Editor Jack Houghton EXCLUSIVE: The financial arm of the Paris Agreement has squandered millions of dollars on airfares, hotel rooms and radically ballooning staffing costs all in the name of fighting climate change. Sipped away in the form of champagne flutes on business class trips through Europe. Staffing costs at the South Korean headquarters of the Green Climate Fund totalled $35 million in 2017. Those same, handsomely paid pencil pushers also spent another $2.1 million on carbon-emitting plane trips and lavish hotel rooms. Australia gave this fund $200 million. That was our money and we deserve answers. But there is no accountability or transparency. Just the declaration that our money was not enough, and the equally unscientific claim that our refusal to further take part in this con is killing this planet. No wonder Australia was just asked to double its original commitment to $400 million. This year, Sky News can reveal the GCFs core staffing figure has exploded to $65 million while the broader admin bill has soared passed the $200 million mark. Australias entire contribution to the climate war wasted on airfares, meals and accommodation. Fight the good fight, gentlemen. And have they eased up on airfares? Quite the opposite. This year they will spend more than $3.7 million on airfares and hotels an extraordinary increase of $1.6 million. Documents detailing their 2020 budget outlook show they have asked for that $3.7 million travel figure to increase by another 11 per cent. So what has this bloated headquarters done with all this money? Well, Sky News has obtained crisis documents detailing why the budgets were increasing so rapidly. It turns out the project assessors tasked with disseminating the $14 billion funding pool have wasted massive chunks assessing proposals which were never viable. The documents warned that because strict eligibility requirements had not been put in place, staff had wasted years checking the viability of proposals only to discover the plans would never work. Without the extra money, the fund warned the entire roll-out of climate change initiates to developing nations could be destabilised. Because the proposals currently under review were developed without the benefit of robust guidance and project eligibility requirements, both their quality and their linkage with country strategies and the GCF transformational goals remain variable, the document said. This fact has significant administrative budget implications for the efforts of both the Secretariat and the AE. As a practical matter, this means that many work years are currently being spent on the development and review of projects that prove to be unviable. This unproductive effort could be greatly reduced if there were clear eligibility requirements, better results-area guidance, and enhanced Secretariat engagement on project ideas well before the development and submission of full projects. The fund said that each proposal was soaking up nearly two months worth of time for each staff member. Our analysis shows that the Secretariat is spending, on average, approximately 50 person days of review time on each public-sector project submission, the crisis document said. During that review, and through engagement with the relevant AE, it often becomes clear that the proposals that were developed and submitted lack viability, resulting in the AE significantly reworking the proposal and/or, in some cases, withdrawing it from consideration. Bloated and inefficient, bordering on fraud. If the funds own internal assessment is this scathing, can you imagine what an independent auditor would say about this mess? So what is the solution? Well, the climate fund has found an answer. It just asked the western world to chip in another $14 billion to finance their blustering attempts to solve the climate crisis. And the western world has just agreed. It is worth noting China has again decided not to contribute funds because it sees itself as still developing. China also has access to GCF grants which, in itself, is an international disgrace. Thankfully, Prime Minister Scott Morrison had the foresight to pull out of this scam before we wasted more money. When you look at the financial situation of this fund it becomes clear that climate change has become an industry itself. This industry wants to expand, like any company does, and the rationale of a climate catastrophe is the perfect fundraising mechanism. You will not solve climate change by contributing funds to these buffoons, you will simply be buying them dinner and wine. Read More Our Apps