News | Climate Change

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-09/eu-to-call-for-urgent-aid-on-climate-projects-in-poorer-nations.html

European Union finance ministers meeting next week will call on rich nations to “urgently mobilize” on the first round of climate aid for developing countries, according to a draft document obtained by Bloomberg.

Finance ministers from 27 nations in the EU will discuss financial support for international climate efforts when they meet in Brussels on March 16. Under a political accord reached at last year’s summit in Copenhagen, rich countries pledged $30 billion between 2010 and 2012 to help poor nations reduce carbon emissions. They plan to give $100 billion a year by 2020.
The EU, which offered the developing world 2.4 billion euros ($3.3 billion) a year in so-called fast-start climate aid through 2012, will be ready during the next round of global- warming talks in Bonn, Germany, from May 31 to June 11 to discuss distribution of that money, according to the document.
“The potential of innovative sources of finance and of market-based instruments in particular, including carbon markets, as well as leverage of private finance through public finance should be taken into account,” the draft document said, adding that the EU is ready to provide inputs on potential sources of revenue.
Countries that agreed last year to non-binding support are aiming to reduce the discharges of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming and keep the global rise in temperatures since industrialization in the 1800s to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
The EU finance ministers will also support the UN’s establishment of an Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing to develop proposals for long-term financing for climate projects in developing nations from public and private sources.
--Editors: Mike Anderson, Jonas Bergman.