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| EU climate cash pledge 'not enough' |
| 2009-12-12 |
| EU leaders ended a Brussels summit with a three-year deal to pay 7.2bn euros (£6.5bn; $10.6bn) to help poorer nations cope with climate change. The EU contribution is part of a global "fast start" package being debated at the UN Copenhagen summit. But leaders of poorer nations and some aid agencies described the sum offered by the EU as inadequate. Groups representing poorer nations most at risk from climate change added their voices to the call for a bigger financial commitment. Lumumba Stanislaus-Kaw Di-Aping, representing the G77 bloc of developing nations and China at the Copenhagen talks, accused EU leaders of acting like "climate sceptics". "They are essentially saying that the problem does not exist," he told a news conference. "Their pledge does not address financing in its totality. We want to know where the money is coming from. Is it overseas development aid or not? When Gordon Brown says the cost of climate change will be irreparable, is he really being true?" Dessima Williams, chairwoman of the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis), said even the global sum on the table at Copenhagen was not enough. "We just had a (Commonwealth) meeting in Trinidad where the figure of $10bn per year was put on the table and that was woefully inadequate," she said. "One cannot do sustainable development - making the transformations in energy for example - with such a small pot of money." Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister He Yafei was also sceptical. "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?" Some aid groups said the EU pledges included funds from existing budgets. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose nation held the rotating EU presidency during the summit, acknowledged that the pledges were "a combination of new and old resources". "Almost all of the money is likely to be simply a relabelling of existing aid commitments," said Anne-Catherine Claude, of ActionAid. "Many EU members have a track record of repackaging or re-announcing existing aid commitments. This appears to be the case here too." Oxfam EU climate change adviser Tim Gore was also disappointed. "In Brussels today, EU leaders only offered small sums of short-term cash. Worst of all, this money is not even new - it's made up of a recycling of past promises, and payments that have already been made," he added. Announcing the deal at the Brussels summit, Mr Reinfeldt said all 27 EU member nations would contribute and that the EU was doing its "fair share". The UK was the largest contributor at £500m ($800m; 553m euros) a year followed by France and Germany.Eastern European countries, which had protested they were too poor to pay, have also made contributions although some are merely symbolic. Many, like Poland, say they are unable to give cash and have offered instead a percentage of the future sale of unused carbon credits. But diplomats admit there is no guarantee how many of those will be sold. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #11 Hey guys, it's your numbers, You're the ones screamin' global warming. |
| Posted by: notascrename 2009-12-12 10:02 |
| #10 How can we buy house on the French Riviera with this paulty promise? |
| Posted by: 3rd World Minister 2009-12-12 08:56 |
| #9 Your promise didn't work! Here's a new one! |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2009-12-12 04:12 |
| #8 “Many, like Poland, say they are unable to give cash and have offered instead a percentage of the future sale of unused carbon credits.” I wish I had something really clever or intelligent to say in response to the above quote. But all I can come up with is…these people are living in fucking Bizzarro World. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2009-12-12 02:05 |
| #7 Worst of all, this money is not even new - it's made up of a recycling of past promises I thought recycling was a good thing.... |
| Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2009-12-12 07:26 |
| #6 Bullshit. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2009-12-12 04:05 |
| #5 Ok, so "none" it is, then... |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-12-12 02:23 |
| #4 The Cargo Cult in full bloom. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-12-12 02:07 |
| #3 I am sure that 0bama will promise to print up the rest... |
| Posted by: abu do you love 2009-12-12 01:03 |
| #2 EU leaders ended a Brussels summit with a three-year deal to pay 7.2bn euros (£6.5bn; $10.6bn) to There. Fixed it. |
| Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) 2009-12-12 12:50 |
| #1 EU climate cash pledge 'not enough' And never will be. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-12-12 12:29 |