EU putting more
Money on the table
EU
leaders say they have agreed to commit 2.4 billion euro
(3.6 billion US dollars) a year until 2012 to help poorer
countries combat global warming. EU leaders also agreed
to reduce their emissions by 30 percent of 1990 levels.
French
President Nicolas Sarkozy (photo above right) says the offer
"puts Europe in a leadership role in Copenhagen."
11/12/2009
- The leaders failed Thursday to come up with a firm figure
for the fund, an embarrassing setback for a bloc that was
long at the forefront of the fight against global warming.
Smaller eastern EU states were reluctant to donate as they
struggle with rising government debt and high unemployment
in the wake of the financial crisis.
Yet
on Friday, EU leaders reached a final figure of 3.6 billion
US dollars a year for the next three years, with Britain,
France and Germany each contributing about 20 percent. Britain
is pushing to raise the figure higher at the Copenhagen
talks.
Donations
by some EU countries are thought to be only a token to reach
a unanimous agreement.
The
climate money is meant to go toward a global 10 billion
US dollars annual fund for short-term help to poor countries,
particularly in Africa, adapt to the effects of global warming
before a new climate treaty being negotiated in Copenhagen
comes into force in 2012.
Critics
noted, however, the 10 billion-dollars-a-year aid pales
in comparison to the huge stimulus packages and bank bailouts
paid by many governments in the wake of the global financial
meltdown.
The
EU leaders also pledged to reduce their emissions by 30
percent of 1990 levels by 2020 — but are still demanding
that other leading polluters make comparable commitments
first.
EU
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called the pledge
"conditional."
"We
will see if there is a move on the part of the other developed
countries during the Copenhagen summit," Reinfeldt
said, noting in particular the United States and Canada.
Do UNFCCC
