Leaders agree headline figures on climate funding

Developing countries may need E100bn annually by 2020 to help them reduce emissions and adapt to climate change, European leaders said on Friday. E22-50bn of this should come from international public funds, they added, in line with European Commission recommendations http://www.endseurope.com/22119.

The leaders did not back the commission's recommendation that the EU could give E2-15bn to developing countries in 2020. Europe's contribution will be determined as part of international talks, ENDS understands. But they did agree that E5-7bn in up-front funding could be needed in 2010-13.

Member states' contributions to up-front funding needs should be made on a voluntary basis, the leaders said. A commission official told ENDS governments have already pledged more than E1bn, and that Europe would probably contribute around a third of the total.

Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso hailed the agreement on these headline figures as "an important breakthrough". "We Europeans have done our job, we are ready for Copenhagen," Mr Barroso said ahead of an EU-US summit in Washington next week.

The leaders did not agree the specifics of an internal burden-sharing mechanism http://www.endseurope.com/22489?referrer=bulletin&DCMP=EMC-ENDS-EUROPE-DAILY for the EU's contribution to international climate funds. "A mechanism will be established that will fully take into account the ability [of less prosperous member states] to pay". This was enough to mollify central and eastern European countries.

A working party will be set up to discuss this mechanism further and it will eventually be finalised at another EU summit, according to an internal summit document. Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told journalists the final decision would only come "after a successful outcome in Copenhagen".

Sources at the council suggested central and eastern European states could receive a favourable deal on their surplus carbon credits (AAUs) under the Kyoto protocol. For example, richer countries could agree to buy a proportion of AAUs from them.

EU leaders also agreed on how the climate financing burden should be shared out internationally. A "global distribution key" should be "based on emission levels and on GDP with a considerable weight on emission levels". "The weight on emissions should increase over time," they added.

Follow-up: European Council

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/showPage.aspx?id=1&lang=EN plus

council conclusions

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/110889.pdf.

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