Deal in Copenhagen “more do-able” says Miliband

The MEF is not itself expected to deliver an agreement, but was initiated by President Obama as a series of meetings to allow more informal and open discussion amongst some of the world’s major polluters ahead of formal UN climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December. 

While acknowledging that the MEF itself was never expected to agree precise numbers, Ed Miliband said he was encouraged by the determination of the 17 countries attending the talks to secure a deal in Copenhagen. “I think the deadline is really concentrating minds and producing significant action,” he said.

Opening of the second day of talks, Prime Minister Gordon Brown had warned those attending: “There is no Plan B.” The MEF appears to have heeded his words: “People at the meeting were talking about Plan A and I think that’s encouraging,” reported Miliband.

He added: “There is significantly further to go, this is absolutely not a done deal. It remains in the balance but I feel today this feels a more do-able proposition than it was yesterday. I think that represents progress."

The Energy and Climate Change Secretary said the challenge in the time remaining before Copenhagen was to get developed countries to agree individual emission reduction targets and to get agreement on the actions that developing countries need to take. 

He added that developing countries were making new commitments “all the time” in this respect – citing Indonesia's target of 26 per cent deviation from business-as-usual (BAU) by 2020, President Hu of China’s promise to make a 'substantial commitment' on carbon intensity and Indian plans for domestic laws on climate actions.

If poorer nations are to adapt to climate change and move to low carbon growth, finance will be key and the final communiqué issued by the MEF at the close of talks yesterday said “substantial agreement” had been achieved on this issue.

In particular, it was agreed that “significantly scaled up” levels of funding would be needed to meet the climate challenge and that a substantial part of this would need to come from public finance. 

“If we get an ambitious outcome in terms of the commitments that countries are willing to enter into, then I think it is important that finance is part of that,” commended the Secretary.

The MEF communiqué asked the forthcoming G20 finance ministers' meeting in St Andrews in Scotland to "advance these discussions" further.

For Friends of the Earth International Climate campaigner Asad Rehman, none of this goes far enough, however. "The Major Economies Forum appears to have done little to break the current deadlock on negotiating a strong and fair agreement at Copenhagen,” he said

"The industrialised world must inject real urgency into proceedings by putting serious cash on the table [...]”

"Any proposals to channel climate finance for developing countries through the World Bank are totally misguided – this bank is heavily involved in funding fossil fuel projects and, because it is controlled by rich countries, the world's poorest communities will have little say over how the money is spent.”

The MEF is made up of Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the EU, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, the UK, and US. Vulnerable countries including Algeria, Bangladesh, Lesotho, Costa Rica, Maldives, and Ethiopia also attended the meeting.