Mexico urges rich states to deliver on climate aid pledges (Roundup)

Mar 15, 2010, 16:08 GMT

Brussels - The European Union and other developed nations must deliver on climate aid pledges made to developing countries, the host of the next world summit on climate change in Cancun, Mexico, said on Monday.

But the pledges might not be enough to win agreement on a binding international treaty at the Cancun talks in November, Mexico's Environment Minister Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada acknowledged.

Elvira was referring in particular to the 10 billion dollars per year the EU, the United States and Japan promised to give as 'fast track' funding for 2010-2012 as part of the deal reached at global talks in Copenhagen last December.

'The developing world needs to see clear signals to have something in their hands at Cancun,' Elvira said in Brussels, where he met EU environment ministers.

He also said that a London meeting in April of the United Nations panel set up to mobilize long-term climate aid will be 'really important to show what is happening on financial transfers to the developing world.'

The EU has offered to contribute 10 billion dollars a year over the next three years towards a fund to help poor countries cope with global warming. The bloc's finance ministers are expected to confirm the commitment when they meet in Brussels on Tuesday.

Spain's environment minister, Elena Espinosa, said after meeting Elvira that he had made 'a point which we think is justified.'

'The EU has made undertakings to less developed countries; all that remains to do is to come up with a clearer, more appropriate timetable,' she said.

The Spaniard said she hoped for a 'binding instrument' of agreement in Cancun.

Spain currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, and chairs the bloc's debates on issues such as climate change.

But Elvira said that it was 'too early to say' whether the Cancun talks would end in a legally-binding deal.

Ahead of the Copenhagen talks, the EU pushed for a binding treaty, but in the end was forced to accept a much flimsier political agreement which the United Nations did not formally endorse.

Germany's deputy environment minister, Katherina Reiche, also sounded a cautious note.

'I'm not counting on getting a complete deal in Mexico, but the steps to it must be clearly defined: what's possible within the UN, where our partners are and how far will we be able to go,' she said.

Elvira said that progress is expected in Cancun on funding to stop deforestation, on fast-track and long-term financing to help poor countries cope with climate change, and on ways to keep the current Kyoto Protocol on climate change alive until a new treaty is agreed.

After attending talks in India and Bali, Elvira said developing nations 'require another type of agreement before the Kyoto Protocol can disappear.'

In particular, he said Mexico had a 'special dedication' to the most powerful developing states, Brazil, China, India and South Africa, who were among the key architects of the Copenhagen deal.

'We want to understand their position and invite them to be part of the solution,' Elvira said.

The Cancun talks are scheduled to start in late November. Elvira said that for the moment Mexico plans to invite environment ministers only, leaving out heads of state unless the chances for concluding a binding treaty improve.

After Cancun, the next UN climate conference is set to take place in South Africa in late 2011.