Negotiators on the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which aims to disburse $100-billion a year for climate financing among developing countries by 2020, entered into a “heated debate” at the seventeenth Conference of the Parties (COP 17) this week, Dr Mohammed Al-Sabban, a senior economic adviser to Saudi Arabia’s Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali Al Naimi said on Thursday.

However, he believed that the GCF could become operational, as there were pledges coming forward for the fund. But the challenge was materialising these pledges.

Further, Saudi Arabia has been a strong voice advocating for carbon capture and storage (CCS) to be accepted under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

“On an international level we continue to drive this cause with the United Nations Convention on Climate Change. We hope that should a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol be secured, CCS becomes eligible for finance,” Al-Sabban said at a CCS seminar on the sidelines of the international climate change talks in Durban.

Should CCS be accepted as a CDM, the GCF would “open up a financial window of opportunity” for the development of CCS.