World

Brown, Sarkozy - pledge $10 Billion to Climate Change Fund

by Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke | December 11, 2009 at 04:25 am

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Since the Kyoto conference in the 90s developed or rich nations have not done all that well in reaching agreed on targets. Canada, which signed the Kyoto Accord, in fact increased carbon emission. The oil sands have become an easy target as a poster child for Canadas environmental indiscretions. Quite frankly, we need a national, if not continental, debate on the oil sands. We are well beyond finger pointing on this issue.

One of the issues, used as an excuse, by Canada and the U.S., was that a binding agreement was necessary and that emerging economies, such as China and India need to participate in this agreement. Developing nations have long argued that the economic powers caused this problem. They have called for the larger world economies to assist developing nations to convert to greener technologies.

The U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Sarkozy have pledge to contribute to a "fast start" fund of $10 Billion for developing nations. Sarkozy and Brown, speaking at an EU Summit in Brussels said their respective countries would contribute 1.5 Billion pounds ($2.7 Billion) to this fund over three years.

No consensus on this fund could be reached by EU nations. Many are hesitant to make commitments, quoting the financial crisis.

EU countries agreed that they must contribute funds from richer nations, but after working through the night no consensus was reached.

African activists stormed out of a meeting on Tuesday, after a draft document was leaked. The document suggest that richer nations could cut fewer emissions, while the developing world faced tougher limits.

U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that they will contribute to a "fast start" fund of $10 billion annually over three years to help developing countries fight global warming.

Speaking at an EU summit in Brussels, Brown and Sarkozy said their countries will pay at least 1.5 billion pounds ($2.56 billion Cdn) over the three years.

However, there was no consensus from other EU countries. Eastern EU nations were reported to be hesitant to donate due to the financial crisis

Brown said EU nations need to work together to provide the finances so that developing counties can change their policies

"There's never been any doubt that we would have to put up some money from the richest countries," he said.

EU leaders could not come to an agreement on a firm figure for the fund on Thursday, and worked through the night.