EU financing proposals to get climate talks back on track not good enough

The EU’s proposals for financing the fight against global warming are intended to help get international climate talks back on track. 

With just three months to go before UN climate conference in Copenhagen, negotiations have stalled over the question of how to help developing countries adapt to and limit global warming.

The EU estimates that developing countries will need € 100 billion (£89 million) a year by 2020 to prevent average global temperatures from rising more than 2°C and so minimise the risk of dangerous climate change.

The EU suggests this will require international public funding of the order of €22 billion (£18 billion) to €50 billion (£44 billion), with each country’s contribution based on its responsibility for emissions and its ability to pay.

It proposes that the EU’s contribution could be between €2 billion (£1.7 billion) and €15 billion (£13 billion) a year by 2020, with the remainder coming from other industrialised nations and advanced developing nations like China and India.

But international charity Christian Aid has said the EU’s calculations are way off the mark and show “a serious lack of ambition”. 

Along with other climate campaigners, it suggests an EU contribution of €35 billion (£31 billion) a year would be more realistic than the €2 billion (£1.7 billion) to €15 billion (£13 billion) it has proposed.

William Chadza, executive director for the Malawian Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy (CEPA) believes the overall level of international public funding proposed by the EU is also too modest.

He said: ”We must consider Europe’s top-end offer of €50 billion (£44 billion) to be an opening negotiation tactic, which might be a good start to kick off the talks. However, the real need of developing countries to cope with the impacts of global warming and develop their own low carbon futures will go far higher than this. The rich world will need to do much more to make a real difference to poor people suffering climate change.”

Charities are particularly concerned by an annex to the commission’s proposal which suggests some of the money needed to help poorer countries adapt to climate change could be diverted from official development assistance (ODA).

“This is alarming,” said Nelson Muffuh, advocacy coordinator at Christian Aid. “In the short term they seem to want to rely totally on ODA for adaptation support which threatens the poverty eradication objectives of developing countries by diverting already meagre resources.

“For the crucial UN climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December to stand any chance of success, industrialised countries must strongly commit to providing substantial funding to cover the full incremental costs for sustainable development and adaptation to climate change in developing countries.”

Elise Ford, head of Oxfam International’s EU office, welcomed the EU’s attempt to break the deadlock in the global climate talks, saying: “Putting climate financing figures on the table is a necessary first step to open up meaningful negotiations.”

However, she described the suggestion that rich countries should take money from existing promises to increase overseas aid spending as “scandalous”. 

“This would rob tomorrow’s hospitals and schools in developing countries to pay for them to tackle climate change today,” she said.

She added: “Funds to help developing countries to tackle climate change must be additional to aid – not instead of it.”

Next week (September 22) United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will convene a Summit on Climate Change to focus heads of state and government on the need for urgent action, and to mobilize “the highest level political will needed to reach a fair, effective, and scientifically ambitious global climate deal” in Copenhagen.

The Summit will not be a negotiating session itself but is intended to provide a forum where leaders can discuss fundamental issues, find common ground and provide guidance for their negotiators.