EU still undecided on climate aid
First day of EU summit ends with no figures on financial support for developing countries to cope with climate change.
The first day of a summit of EU leaders ended with no deal on the dominant issue on the agenda, the provision of financing to help developing countries cope with the effects of climate change.
Sweden’s Prime Minister Frederik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said that would continue working through the night with EU leaders to secure a better offer on financing for the next three years.
The envisaged pre-2012 financing package – known as ‘fast track’ funding – is designed to help get a deal at the ongoing UN-led summit in Copenhagen, which is seeking an agreement on global measures to curb climate change after the existing framework, the Kyoto protocol, expires in 2012.
Reinfeldt said that over half of the 27 EU member states offered to make contributions to fast-start financing. He declined, however, to provide figures of how much they were offering.
“We need five to €5-7 billion annually before 2013 and we are still working on what EU countries are able to put on the table on a voluntary basis,” he said. “We are working through the night to get better figures.”
“We think we will have a better figure tomorrow than tonight,” he said.
EU leaders had already agreed, at their summit in October, that contributions to fast-start financing would be voluntary.
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The UK has offered €880 million over three years, Sweden is offering around €750m, the Netherlands has offered €300m for three years, while Belgium has offered €150m. Spain is reported to be offering €300m and Ireland €90m.
France, Germany and Italy have not yet made a precise figure.
Medium-term financing
Reinfeldt said that it was equally important to get agreement on medium-term financing for the period after 2013, saying that this had been estimated at €100bn a year by 2020.
The Copenhagen summit is scheduled to run until 18 December, with EU leaders due to attend the final days of the summit.
Reinfeldt said that EU leaders had re-confirmed their willingness to increase the target for greenhouse-gas cuts by 2020 to 30%, provided other developed countries made similarly ambitious reduction commitments.
“The offer still stands move to 30%, if other parts of the world make a similar type of commitment,” he said.
“We need a global answer to this global problem,” he said.
Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the prime minister, echoed Reinfeldt’s comments, saying: “Europe wants a deal in Copenhagen next Friday, but this has to be met with equally ambitious goals by other countries such as the US, China, Australia and others.”
The 27 EU countries account for 13% of global emissions, Reinfeldt said.
Financial crisis
EU leaders also discussed the ongoing financial crisis and, in particular, how to withdraw fiscal-stimulus measures introduced in response to the financial crisis.
They envisage beginning to implement the exit strategy in 2011.
EU leaders also agreed upon a common approach to financial-market supervision, both at the corporate and macroeconomic level.
EU 2020
The Swedish prime minister said that leaders had discussed a strategy to replace the EU’s Lisbon strategy which was designed to boost growth and create jobs. The European Commission has drafted and put out for consultation a replacement strategy, called EU2020, which should be agreed by EU leaders in March.
The Commission’s president, José Manuel Barroso, said that Herman Van Rompuy, the newly appointed president of the European Council, had called an informal summit in February to discuss the EU 2020 strategy.