ANALYSIS-Coronavirus sparks soul-searching over travel-heavy climate diplomacy

(Reuters, 23 Mar 2020) Some fear replacing global climate conferences with online meetings or slimming them down could exclude the poorest.

As the coronavirus began spreading quickly around the world, the Green Climate Fund, which backs developing-world projects to tackle climate change, relocated a board meeting this month from its headquarters in virus-hit South Korea to Switzerland.

But at the opening of the three-day gathering in Geneva, France's delegate warned that holding the face-to-face meeting was too risky and "a mistake".

The following week, three people who attended - two of the fund's staff, based in Korea, and an official from Liberia's Environmental Protection Agency - tested positive for the COVID-19 infection, though no other cases have since been detected.

The Green Climate Fund said on Friday it was "working closely with public health officials and the authorities" in Switzerland, Korea and other countries "to take necessary steps to limit the risks of exposure and transmission of COVID-19".

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Reuters, 23 Mar 2020: ANALYSIS-Coronavirus sparks soul-searching over travel-heavy climate diplomacy