LONDON (Reuters) – A lack of transparency over rich countries’ pledges to help poor nations deal with climate change means much of the cash promised is being diverted from development aid commitments, campaigners say.

In the Copenhagen Accord, struck at December’s U.N. climate summit, developed countries agreed to provide poorer nations with “new and additional resources” of about $30 billion by 2012 to help them limit their emissions and adapt to a warmer world.

But the pact, backed by some 120 nations, does not specify what funds count toward the 2012 pledge, known as “fast start.”

The World Resources Institute says donors had announced nearly $24 billion in “fast start” funds by the beginning of March, plus $3.5 billion for a forest preservation scheme.

But researchers say cash-strapped governments plan to divert some of the money from existing official development assistance (ODA) budgets rather than find new cash.

“There is a lot of slippery language around ‘new and additional’,” said Rob Bailey, a policy advisor on climate change for Oxfam.

Most governments also expect the climate change aid to count toward a separate U.N. target for donors to give 0.7 percent of their gross national income for overseas development.