EU summit to put off decision on climate funding for developing world

Jun 15, 2009, 12:48 GMT

Luxembourg - The European Union is set to put off any decision on how it should pay developing countries to fight climate change until a summit in October, according to internal documents.

EU officials estimate that the developed world will have to pay poorer countries around 100 billion euros (140 billion dollars) per year by 2020 to help them adapt to climate change.

EU leaders are tipped to debate how the bloc should help foot that bill at a summit in Brussels on Thursday.

But according to a draft summit declaration, they will only say that they are 'prepared, subject to developments in international negotiations, to take the appropriate decisions on all aspects of financing at (the EU's) October meeting.'

Thursday's summit is set to agree that developed countries, such as Australia, the EU and the United States, should use a common formula based on historical emissions and economic wealth to establish how much funding each should give the developing world.

But the draft summit statement leaves aside the key question of how much each EU member state should pay towards the bloc's overall contribution.

The use of the international formula for contributions will be 'without prejudice to the internal EU burden sharing, which will be determined in good time before the (United Nations),Copenhagen conference' on climate change in December, the draft says.

EU member states are divided over the question of how they should share out the bloc's bill for supporting climate-change defence measures in the developing world.

A majority, led by Denmark and the Netherlands, want the EU to use whatever formula is agreed among the world's developed nations.

But a minority, led by Poland, want to use a separate formula based solely on each country's ability to pay - a formulation which would greatly reduce the bill of relatively poor former-Communist countries whose emissions are relatively high.

The question will be 'one of the trickiest to discuss' at the summit, Sweden's minister for European affairs, Cecilia Malmstrom, said after the Luxembourg meeting.

Sweden takes over the EU's rotating presidency on July 1, and will hold it until the end of the year, representing the bloc at the crucial talks in Copenhagen.