London, December 12: Developing nations at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen have rejected as “insignificant” an EU pledge of 7.2 billion euros ($11.57bn) to help them tackle global warming.
EU leaders agreed the funding, to be paid out over three years, at a summit in Brussels a full week before 110 heads of state and government convene in Copenhagen for the finale of the 12-day conference.
“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.”
Every one of the 27 EU member states will contribute, with Britain giving up £1.2 billion ($2.13 billion), despite its worse recession in decades.
But in Copenhagen, the Group of 77 developing nations – actually a caucus of 130 states that includes China – said the proposal fails to address the issue of setting up long-term financing mechanisms.
“I believe they are not only insignificant, they actually breed even more distrust on the intentions of European leaders on climate change,” said Lumumba Stanislaus Dia-Ping of Sudan.
“Our view is that European leaders are acting as if they were climate sceptics,” he said.
“Fundamentally, they are saying this problem does not exist and therefore they are providing no finance whatsoever.”
Equally sceptical was Chinese vice foreign minister He Yafei.
“It will be relatively easy for developed countries to come up with a number for the short term for three years,” he said.
“But what shall we do after three years?”
The EU proposal, and the backlash it generated, came as the first official draft of a potential Copenhagen agreement emerged – only for the US to reject a key section as “unbalanced”.
Besides setting a target for limiting global warming, the seven-page blueprint calls for a second commitment period under the Kyoto protocol, which runs out in 2012 without ever having been ratified by the US.
—Agencies