Thailand yesterday (Dec 12) called for the adaptation fund aimed at financially supporting adaptation against climate change among developing countries to be operated quickly and be expanded.

"Thailand is among the developing countries with high vulnerability to the impacts of climate change....However, the supports form developed countries will help on technological and scientific transfer and financial of the adaptation fund. Therefore, we strongly call for considerable expansion of the adaptation fun and that it is operationalised in a very quick manner," said Ms Nisakorn.

Nisakorn Kositratna, deputy permanent secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, made the statement before nearly 200 high-level delegates who were attending the high-level segment in the climate change meeting in Poznan, the half-way mark to an arrangement of a new climate deal which is expected to be concluded next year in Copenhagen. The adaptation fund was among one of the outstanding issues which were left unsolved until the last day of the meeting.

Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said earlier that the parties were considering whether or not developing countries should have direct access to the fund, which is now under supervision of the Adaptation Fund Board. The parties also considered whether the levy of the fund should be accumulated from other mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol including the Joint Implementation.

The Joint Implementation, or JI, allows developed countries to initiated projects in another developed country and gain emissions credits, which is different from Clean Development Mechanism, which is operated between developed countries and developing countries.

Until Friday's late evening, the parties were still under stressful discussions regarding all outstanding issues including the fund. European Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas, also head of the EU delegation, expressed his optimism about the fund.

However, he cautioned about the operation of the fund saying, it should be used for the right purposes while being delivered to those in need. However, some climate change experts said only the fund alone could not help. In order for people to adapt more effectively, more strategies are needed including research and capacity building.

Ihe International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) proposed community based adaptation, which has so far accumulated experience from over 100 communities worldwide to be shared among the community network. Saleemul Huq, group head for Climate Change Department of the IIED, stressed on the need to learn from communities first before any adaptation measures are implemented in communities.

"We need to learn from what they do. And by understanding in what they do, we then can advise, "said Dr Huq.