South Korea is to host the United Nations’ (UN) Green Climate Fund (GCF), fighting off competition from Germany, Mexico, Namibia, Poland and Switzerland.

The GFC was agreed upon at the UN climate change summit in Durban last year to provide $100 billion a year from 2020 to help developing countries tackle climate change.

At next month’s climate summit in Doha, Qatar, ministers will confirm Songdo in South Korea as the official host city of the fund and work out how the GCF is to be supported up to 2020, as well as how to raise the $100 billion a year thereafter.

Developed nations have committed billions of dollars to support the fund, but the $100 billion target still looks difficult in the current economic climate. By the same token, developing nations warn that $100 billion may not be enough to deal will the most pressing issues.

But the announcement is good news for South Korea, which is positioning itself as a leader in clean technology in the region. Earlier this month, the government pledged to double emission reduction targets next year for the industrial and power sectors ahead of introducing a cap-and-trade scheme.

And in another announcement, South Korea has started construction on the world’s biggest fuel cell park in Gyeonggi Province.

Made up of 21 fuel cell power plants, the 58.8 MW development will supply electricity directly to the grid and excess heat to a local district heating system.

US company FuelCell Energy will supply fuel cells and components for the development, which is owned by a consortium including Korea’s largest electric utility Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, POSCO Energy, gas distributor Samchully and financial investors.

“Development of this fuel cell park illustrates how our stationary fuel cell power plants can be used to support the power grid as the combination of near-zero pollutants, modest land-use needs, and quiet operating nature of these stationary fuel cell power plants facilitates their siting in urban locations,” says Chip Bottone, president and CEO of FuelCell Energy.

For further information:
gcfund.net/home.html
www.fuelcellenergy.com/

Related stories:
South Korea pledges to double 2013 emissions reduction target (16-Oct)
South Korea moves ahead with cap and trade scheme (3-May)
EU proposes shipping and aviation pay for $100 billion climate fund (20-May 2011)