EU promises to help developing countries fight climate change, COP 15
Release Date: 2009-03-23
The European Union stands by its commitment to help poor countries overcome climate changes and take on its fair share of financing.
At the end of a two-day summit in Brussels last week, the European leaders eventually agreed on a statement of intent. The EU promises to pay a "fair share" to developing countries to help them fight global warming and adapt to its consequences. However, commitments to concrete figures remained elusive and the matter was forwarded till the next council meeting in June.
Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas told Reuters that it could move no further until other rich nations spell out their targets for cutting global warming gases.
"It is obvious that in order to calculate the amount of funding for our contribution, we need to know what other developed countries will do," Dimas said in an interview.
"Japan has announced they will come up with a number in June. I hope it will be earlier. In the United States there is still a shaping-up of policy," he told Reuters.
The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters that the EU contribution would probably be in the order of 20 to 40 billion Euros and Dimas could confirm that it was not an unlikely estimate.
Earlier last week, Danish Prime Minister and host of the UN Climate change conference in December Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed impatience with the pace of the negotiations. Nonetheless he was pleased with the outcome of the meeting.
"We have thus sent a clear signal that the EU will assist developing countries, both in terms of reducing emissions, and when it comes to finance adaptation to climate change," Rasmussen told the Danish news agency Ritzau.
| Type: | NORMAL |
| Company: | COP 15 |
| Country: | Denmark |
| Url: | http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=910 |