Baltic and European news
EU plan to finance climate treaty short on specifics
Wednesday 28 January 2009
Proposals for exactly how much developed countries could pay developing nations to help them mitigate and adapt to climate change have been dropped from a European commission policy paper released on Wednesday.
The paper sets out the commission's position on a new global climate deal expected to be signed in Copenhagen in December (EE 27/01/09 http://www.endseurope.com/20484). At its heart is the key question of how to generate a flow of funds from richer to poorer countries and the conditions for this.
EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas called on European heads of state and governments to endorse the proposals when they meet in Brussels in March. "No money, no deal," he told journalists on Wednesday.
In an early version of the paper obtained by ENDS two weeks ago (EE 14/01/09 http://www.endseurope.com/20370), the commission suggested developed countries could be required to buy all of their carbon allowances at a fixed price, which if set at E1 per tonne in 2013, rising to E3 per tonne in 2020, would generate over E160bn for developing nations.
The commission estimates E175bn net additional investment per year will be needed by 2020, over half of this in developing countries, to mitigate climate change. Another E23-54bn will be needed annually by 2030 for developing countries to adapt.
Wednesday's paper does not mention the E1-3 price range. It says developed countries could take on an "annual financial commitment" based on an "agreed formula". This would take into account a country's total emissions and its GDP per capita. It could "individually" raise the funds and spend them using "all the existing bilateral and multilateral channels".
A call for public financial assistance to support developing countries' adaptation efforts to be stepped up to E5bn in 2013 and E10bn by 2020 has also been dropped from the final paper. That said, the commission introduces a call for a "global climate financing mechanism" to aim to raise E1bn per year from 2010-14 to help the poorest countries.
Despite the changes outlined above, Wednesday's paper is not fundamentally different from its earlier version either in the array of financing mechanisms it presents, the targets and actions the EU would like to see developed and developing countries commit to.
The commission also confirmed carbon markets should play a central role in raising the funds to finance climate mitigation and adaptation in developing countries, and that aviation and shipping should be included in a Copenhagen deal.
Greenpeace called the paper a "decent blueprint" but said it "fails to out its Euros where its mouth is". NGO Oxfam welcomed "promising ideas" on raising money but said the commission "completely fails to specify" how much.
Follow-up: European commission climate pages http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/future_action.htm
plus press release
background memo
and policy paper
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/pdf/future_action/communication.pdf.
See reactions from European parliament http://www.endseurope.com/docs/90128a.doc, The Greens
http://www.greens-efa.org/cms/pressreleases/dok/267/267775.post2012_climate_policy@en.htm,
Greenpeace http://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/press-centre/press-releases2/commission-proposes-climate-ba,
and British centre-right MEP John Bowis
http://www.conservativeeurope.com/news/1032/europe-must-lead-global-action-on-climate-change.aspx.
ENDS Europe Daily is Europe's leading environmental news service. A free trial is available by clicking on the following link: http://www.endseuropedaily.com/web/helcom.