EU divided on climate aid to poor countries
Some nations fear economic burden
BRUSSELS - The European Union fought yesterday to live up to its self-proclaimed leadership on combating climate change, with the 27 EU leaders at odds over how much to offer poorer nations to join the global battle.
EU nations failed to agree on a figure for climate change funding for developing countries during a first set of talks yesterday, diplomats said, promising to make new efforts to strike a deal today. The diplomats spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were ongoing.
Nine eastern EU states said earlier that they would rather walk away from the two-day summit without an agreement than be forced into a deal for billions of euros that would stretch their budgets - even if that jeopardizes a global climate pact and hurts the EU’s image.
After talks with eight counterparts, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai of Hungary said they did not want a deal “at any price,’’ considering the blows their economies had already taken during the financial crisis.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain warned against waiting for a deal, saying the stakes in the climate change battle are too high to bicker over who should shoulder how much of the burden. “Unless we have a program for financing the action we’re taking against climate change, then we will not get an agreement at Copenhagen,’’ where a UN climate conference kicks off Dec. 7 aimed at replacing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, Brown said.
He said developing nations would need annual help of $148 billion by 2020, of which EU governments and companies should contribute up to $59 billion.
