Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
The US has some of the world’s most boring looking money—it’s all green. So we have terms like “greenbacks” for dollars, and “long green”, meaning lots of money.
I offer this as context for what I found when I got to wondering what had happened to the United Nations “Green Climate Fund”. You may recall that the Green Climate Fund was set up by the UN as the only result of the recent Rio de Janeiro Cancun conference on climate idiocy. When the Fund is going full throttle, it is supposed to disburse no less than $200 billion ($200,000,000,000) dollars each and every year to the developing countries.
It turns out that, unlike those of us skeptics who are falsely accused of receiving big bucks from big oil, the “Green Climate Fund” has already raked in millions of dollars to spend on fighting the evil forces of carbon. They have a catchy slogan, viz: “The urgency and seriousness of climate change call for ambition in financing adaptation and mitigation”. Ambition in financing? What’s not to like?
Now, I’ve worked for development organizations before. The rule of thumb is that no more than 15% of the funds should go for administration, the rest needs to go to the eventual intended recipients of the largesse.
So … how many of the millions of dollars that have been “donated” by taxpayers in a variety of countries have gone to the actual poor, to aid them in their battle against the dread CO2?
Let’s start how much money we’re talking about.
Here’s a list of the countries who are both rich and improvident enough to squander their taxpayers’ money on the Green Climate Fund. It’s the usual suspects, my condolences to their citizens who are paying for this:
Australia, $513,000
Denmark, $608,000
Finland, $648,000
France, $326,000
Japan, $500,000
Germany, $1,053,000
South Korea, $2,099,000
Netherlands, $286,000
Sweden, $752,000
UK, $770,000
TOTAL, $7,555,000
The Koreans put in two megabucks … but then, they also negotiated a deal where the Green Climate Fund is headquartered in Seoul. So no tears for them, they’ll make out like bandits. Landing a UN drone hive is like landing a money machine, the local landlords will be overjoyed.
Now, of course, $7.5 million, that’s a long ways from their goal of dispersing $200 billion per year. In fact, it’s about this far from their goal:
I see this as very good news—perhaps the countries of the world have figured out that they have better things to do with their money.
Anyhow, I started all of this out with a simple question. How much of the $7.5 million went to help the people it’s supposed to help?
Here’s the not-so-simple answer. When you do this kind of thing, first you have to hand out the plum jobs. Among those are the Members of the Board. Of course, then you have to pay for their travel, and a place for them to meet, for their meetings. And it turns out that three Board Meetings cost just under a million dollars. Expensive meetings. Very expensive meetings.
Oh, can’t forget the Board Committees, Panels, and Working groups. They cost just under four hundred thousand. Total, a million three …
The next round of plum jobs are the people who make up the “Interim Secretariat”. From the name, I take it that these folks are just placeholders until we get more parasites for the real Secretariat …in any case, there’s two million in the budget to hire fifteen people. My mathematics makes that $133,000 per person per year.
So one thing is clear. The UN Personnel came to do good for the poor … and they’re doing very well indeed. A hundred and thirty grand per person? You can see why the South Koreans will be the big winners in the deal.
It gets worse. They actually hire themselves to do the work, at incredible rates. For example, from the UN FCCC they are hiring one full-time and one part-time person, plus some administrative support … for a cool half million dollars. One and a half people. Half a megabuck.
And from the UN GEF, same deal, one full-time and one 60% time person, cost, another half million.
Now, you and I might be satisfied by that. But the UN folks are realists. They know that even if all those fifteen UN drones could somehow work together, they still couldn’t organize a booze-up in a frat house. For that, they always hire consultants. You know, people who can actually do the stuff the UN employees can only talk about.
So the Green Climate Fund has three-quarters of a million bucks in the budget for consultants, to make sure something gets done.
Oh, and did I mention $200,000 per year for the Executive Director?
Now, you gotta know that you can’t have fifteen pluted bloatocrats, plus 3.1 loan-drones from other UN agencies, and three-quarters of a million dollars worth of consultants, without renting some executive-type hive to house the worker bees. Plus phones and faxes and the like, that’s a million two …
Of course, you can’t do business by email, phone, and Skype. Gotta have a travel budget … three hundred grand.
Add all that up, and the “Interim Secretariat” costs $5.3 million …
Lastly, a Trust Fund needs an Interim Trustee. The Green Climate Fund hires that service from the World Bank for just under three-quarters of a million dollars per year … one trustee …IT costs … I can hardly believe it myself, but by a strange coincidence, what it costs them to run the Green Climate Fund adds up to … well … about seven and a half million dollars.
And that means that of the $7.5 million dollars donated by taxpayers all over the world, the people in the developing countries will get …
None.
Like I said, while I bemoan the waste of resources, I see all this as good news. Any country that takes a serious look at what’s happened to the first seven plus million that was donated to the Green Climate Fund will certainly have second thoughts about giving them money.
And that’s a good thing, because if they are this profligate with the first seven and a half million … can you imagine these same pack of over-fed fools in charge the dispensing of two hundred billion dollars to the developing world? I shudder to think of the waste, corruption, bribery, blackmail, and tribalism that would be involved in that kind of an industrial-scale goat-rope. The only people who’d be happy if that happened would be corrupt developing world leaders … and of course, Swiss bankers …
w.
DATA: I do give the GCF high marks for one thing: transparency. All relevant documents are here.
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“Green Climate Fund”
These guys are pikers compared to how the UN and their cronies were involved with the “Oil for Food” program.
Way to go Willis.
Apparently these stingy, self-serving b*st*rds couldn’t find it in their hard hearts even to give a plugged poisha to some semi-naked beggar on a corner in Chittagong, Bangladesh – if they ever had the balls to go there.
I am glad to not see Canada in the list of shmucks,
Willis, I agree that American money is boring. All the same colour, all the same size. However, from the kindness of my heart, and as an expression of the great admiration I have for your work, I am prepared to take over the boredom of as much money as you care to send me. How about a couple of million for starters?
Chipotle says:
October 28, 2013 at 4:32 pm
Indeed, Chipotle. And this fund goes further than others. Foolishly, it doesn’t always give the funds to the project itself. Or at least it won’t if it ever gets around to disbursing funds.
It’s willing (under certain conditions) to disburse the funds directly to the country, rather than to the project. The opportunities for theft, corruption, embezzlement, misappropriation, and garden-variety loss are greatly enhanced under that plan … which of course is why the developing countries have fought so hard to change the rules to allow that. It lets them dip even deeper into the funds.
Like I said, Swiss bankers are rubbing their hands …
w.
further to the link about the Wind Farm in Ethiopia, given MSM reports gave the impression this one project would fulfill outstanding domestic energy demands and ennable Ethiopia to export to, as BBC put it, “neighbouring countries”:
28 Oct: IEEE Spectrum: Dave Levitan: Ethiopian Wind Farm Adds Five Percent of Country’s Total Electricity CapacityThose 120 MW actually represent about 5 percent of Ethiopia’s entire installed electricity generating capacity based on the Energy Information Administration’s latest data (and a more recent interview with the head of Ethiopia’s state-run utility).
Scaling up Africa’s energy supplies is considered an enormous priority for helping to draw many millions of people out of poverty, and doing so with renewable energy is a no-brainer…
Ethiopia alone has an estimated wind power potential of more than 1000 gigawatts (roughly the installed electricity capacity of the United States, from all energy sources). And while only a few projects are in the works in that country, an African Development Bank study from earlier this year reported that about 10.5 gigawatts of wind power currently in the pipeline across the continent…
The quick-hit potential of such massive electricity development is hard to resist in a continent where 500 million people lack access to power. But it is exciting as well that wind power projects like the one in Ethiopia are starting to take hold, along with the ever-present potential of Saharan solar power. And the money for these projects is starting to flow as well, highlighted by U.S. President Barack Obama’s announcement earlier this year of a US $7 billion grant for the Power Africa project; much of that cash will go toward renewable energy projects.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/green-tech/wind/ethiopian-wind-farm-adds-five-percent-of-countrys-total-electricity-capacity?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IeeeSpectrumEnergy+(IEEE+Spectrum%3A+Energy)
23 Oct: Reuters: UPDATE 2-Iberdrola warns on profit after regulatory hit
Regulatory changes wipe 1.01 billion euros from results.
Iberdrola SA warned on Wednesday that the costs of regulatory changes were hurting its earnings and straining its dividend payouts, making the Spanish utility the latest European energy firm to fall victim of tough market conditions.
Like other Spanish utilities such as Endesa, Iberdrola has been hit by government measures to solve a 26 billion euro ($35.8 billion) shortfall in Spain’s power system stemming from the difference between state-regulated costs and utilities’ revenues.
The company, a world leader in wind turbines, said cuts to renewables subsidies and a tax on generation in Spain, plus costs related to a regulator-mandated energy efficiency scheme in Britain and price cuts in Brazil had wiped 1.01 billion euros from its core profit in the first nine months of the year.
The impact of the regulatory changes could come as a shock as Iberdrola had moved away from the volatile business of power generation to seek lower but steady earnings abroad in regulated businesses like grids and wind power…
Some utilities have stopped investing in continental Europe and are seeking growth in emerging markets and more stable regulatory environments like the United States and Britain.
French peer GDF Suez has led the way in investing in power generation abroad, while Iberdrola has focused on foreign grids…
The group also faces regulatory hurdles in Brazil, where President Dilma Rousseff is looking to cut power rates again, a year after a forced tariff reduction…
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/23/iberdrola-results-idUSL5N0ID12620131023
21 Oct: WindPowerMonthly: Iberdrola wins 61MW Kenyan contract
The Kinangop project, worth EUR 85 million to the Spanish utility company, will be located 40 kilometres from Nairobi and is being developed by Kenyan firm Aeolus.
Iberdrola will handle the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the project.
Once constructed it will be owned by the African Infrastructure Investment Fund and the Norwegian investment fund for developing countries, Norfund.
As previously announced, the wind farm will be made up of 38 GE 1.6-82.5 turbines. It was originally initiated by EcoGen as a 30MW project in 2004, but was scaled up to 50MW in 2009, with a 60MW plan approved in May 2010.
Iberdrola, as part of a consortium with Gamesa, is also building the Ngong II wind farm, 30 kilometres from Nairobi…
While there are a number of wind farms in the pipeline in Kenya, including the 300MW Lake Turkana, the country still has only 5MW of installed capacity…
http://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1217133/iberdrola-wins-61mw-kenyan-contract
March 2012: Guardian: Clar Ni Chonghaile in Nairobi: Kenya to host sub-Saharan Africa’s largest windfarm
The Lake Turkana Wind Power project aims to provide reliable, low-cost wind power to the Kenya national grid, allowing the country to reduce its dependency on hydroelectric power
Kenya’s remote Turkana region was briefly a top Twitter trend on Monday after British firm Tullow Oil said it had struck oil in one of the east African country’s poorest areas. The news prompted a flurry of #TurkanaOil tweets with some predicting a windfall but many others wondering whether oil would be a blessing or a curse.
Somewhat ironically, as Kenya dreams of joining Africa’s oil giants, the arid region surrounding the jade waters of Lake Turkana is already poised to make a serious contribution to Kenya’s ever-growing energy needs with the construction of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest windfarm…
“The World Bank Group has been working with the Kenyan government and … Kenya Power on this since August last year. They are completing their internal approval processes including the due diligence on the project. They are well advanced and we hope they will have completed and reached their board approvals in the next two months,” Carlo Van Wageningen, head of LTWP, told the Guardian in an email response to questions.
The ambitious project, which is backed by the African Development Bank, marks the largest single private investment in Kenya’s history, and should allow the country to diversify from hydroelectric power, which provides around 60% of its electricity needs but is prone to drought and irregular rainfall, leading to blackouts and shortages that dampen economic growth.
Only about 18% of Kenyan households have access to power, according to the United Nations, and demand is increasing. Kenya’s peak electricity demand has risen to 1,200 megawatts, compared with 780MW in 2002, due to economic growth…
Nick Nuttall, spokesman for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said Kenya was among a group of developing countries where UNEP had mapped potentially windy sites and ones with good solar potential. He said LTWP had plans to expand the windfarm once the first phase is under way…
The windfarm will cover 40,000 acres in Loiyangalani district in north-eastern Kenya, stretching from 450m at the shore of Lake Turkana to 2,300m above sea level at the top of Mount Kulal…
A total of 365 wind turbines will be erected once 204km of roads have been built or improved to allow access for trucks, which will need to make around 12,000 trips to bring materials to the area…
He said it was too early to comment on what the consequences of the oil discovery in Turkana would be. “We hope and expect that the two investments can coexist without interfering with each other. We are also not sure yet on how near the discovery is to the LTWP site,” he said…
The LTWP consortium is made up of Dutch firm KP&P Africa B.V., Aldwych International, the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC), the Industrialisation Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), Wind Power A/S (Vestas) and the Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund).
LTWP says that the carbon credits the project creates should earn 26bn Kenyan shillings (euros 200m) over the life of the project, and this income will be shared with the government and invested in the surrounding community…
LTWP says the project will create 2,500 jobs during the 32-month construction period and 200 full-time jobs during its operations.
According to the Earth Policy Institute, wind energy developers installed a record 41,000MW of electricity-generating capacity last year, with more than 80 countries now harnessing the wind. In Africa, Ethiopia brought its first windfarm online last year, and both Nigeria and Mauritania have projects on the table. Until now, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia have led the way, although South Africa is also believed to have substantial potential.
In Kenya, investment grew from virtually zero in 2009 to $1.3bn in 2010 across technologies such as wind, geothermal, small-scale hydro and biofuels.
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/mar/28/kenya-to-host-largest-windfarm-turkana
Pluted bloatocrats. Lol.
Good one Willis.
Reblogged this on Tallbloke's Talkshop and commented:
Willis on top form.
Looks like the sort of job where you need someone who is good at going for a long wait or a bubble for a spirit level (although I always thought they were goldfish farts trapped in those little tubes). Sounds like one of those jobs where it is more important to get the paperwork done than to actually do anything useful.
James Bull
A+, WIllis!
In agriculture, it’s a “win” if you can weaken the parasites that attack your crop by siccing another set of parasites on them. You don’t have to like the 2nd set of parasites, but you can certainly enjoy it when they’re sucking the life out of the 1st set of parasites!
“Financing adaptation”.
I think that means foreign taxpayers adapting to sending money to third world places where it will go to the existing power brokers to distribute among themselves, their friendly corporate citizens and the local indigents they now are willing to pay to serve them drinks and drive them around.
Talk, talk, talk. And then have a massage.
Oh, sorry. I tuned in Al Gore.
Classic Left-wing gravy train. The whole thing is a complete fraud to defraud taxpayers of the world to make these cushy “jobs” for themselves.I am sure that some community group seeking a couple of grand for a local project will be just thrilled to know they cannot have the money because their hard earned tax dollars went to yet another UN body with a catchy name that has been created to maintain the appearance of respectability.”Above all, appear respectable” is a motto of the Fabian Society, the instigators of the UN. It is also the tactic of habitual LIARS to keep up the trust in their con jobs.The entire UN itself is a massive con job built on a bed of lies to hide the true reason for their existence-to continue the work of Karl Marx, destroy traditional religion and replace it with a Gaian style “religion” that is eco-centric (Paganism) and destroy technology and society.