EU pledges over USD10 bn to climate battle

The European Union on Friday pledged 7.2 billion euros (10.6 billion dollars) to help poor nations battle global warming, upping the stakes at the UN climate summit.

Copenhagen: The European Union on Friday pledged 7.2 billion euros (10.6 billion dollars) to help poor nations battle global warming, upping the stakes at the UN climate summit.

The money, to be spent over three years, ramps up pressure on rich countries to do more at the summit where a text of a draft statement sets a target of limiting global warming to 1.5 or 2.0 degrees Celsius (2.7 or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
The EU money was immediately welcomed in Copenhagen. "The fact that Europe is going to put a figure on the table will, I think, be hugely encouraging to the process," said UN climate chief Yvo de Boer.

"We will then have to see what other rich countries are going to put on the table," he said.

At the EU summit in Brussels, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the European accord "a very significant move forward in the search for a Copenhagen agreement".

Britain is pledging 1.2 billion pounds (1.3 billion euros, two billion dollars) -- more than any other EU member state -- despite Britain weathering its worse recession in decades.

But Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose nation holds the rotating EU presidency, acknowledged that the 7.2 billion euros was "a combination of new and old resources" -- confirming environmentalists` fears about the true extent of the initiative.

"Short-term funding is necessary but there is a risk that this will be used to greenwash an outcome which is weak and doesn`t have any structural needs-based funding," Greenpeace EU campaigner Joris den Blanken said.

Rival blocs of negotiators -- from highly vulnerable poor countries, emerging giant economies and rich nations -- wrangled in Copenhagen over the draft text.

On top of setting a targets for limiting global warming, it adds a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012 and has been boycotted by the United States.

The text says: "Parties shall cooperate to avoid dangerous climate change, in keeping with the ultimate objective of the Convention, recognizing [the broad scientific view] that the increase in global average temperature above pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed [2 C] [1.5 C]."

The lower temperature is embraced by small island states and many African nations badly threatened by climate change, while the higher target has been supported by rich nations and emerging giants such as China, India and Brazil.

The draft text also leaves open three possible targets for the overall reduction of global carbon emissions by 2020, compared with 1990 levels: by 50 percent, by 80 percent and by 95 percent.

Industrialised countries favour the 50 percent goal, while major emerging economies led by China have baulked at any such target unless it is made clear that rich countries will assume the near totality of the burden.

But it was vague on climate funding. Nor does it spell out a deadline for concluding a treaty that would be legally binding on the 194 nations that are parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The document will now goes to environment ministers who will work on it before more than 110 heads of state and government convene in Copenhagen for the end of the conference next Friday.

Danish police have beefed up security ahead of a major demonstration on Saturday that is expected to draw tens of thousands of protesters.

A march organised by 515 organisations from 67 countries will cross the capital to the Bella Centre, where the climate talks are unfolding.

"We know from experience that some destructive elements will infiltrate the demonstration," Copenhagen police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch told AFP. Around 35 Danes and foreigners were taken into custody "as a preventive measure" on suspicion they might try to break the law.

Bureau Report

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