EU PLAYING POLITICS ON CLIMATE FINANCE COULD JEOPARDISE UN DEAL, SAY GREENS

The European Commission today published its proposals setting out a framework for financing of international climate efforts, including the role of the EU. Commenting on the Commission's international climate finance proposals, UK Green MEP Caroline Lucas said:

"With around 100 days to go to the end of the UN climate summit in Copenhagen, the EU urgently needs to adopt a concrete position on climate change financing for developing countries. Unfortunately, the proposals published by the Commission could jeopardise the negotiations by trying to heap a disproportionate share of the burden onto developing countries.

"The Commission's estimations on the required amount of climate financing for developing countries are on the low side (€66-80bn per annum) compared with other recent estimations. On top of this, the Commission claims that only €22-50bn per annum (by 2020) should be accounted for by public financing. This figure is clearly artificially low and smacks of politicking, with the negotiations in mind. Setting the figure too low could jeopardise the commitment of developing countries to a UN climate deal.

"The Commission calculates that EU share of the responsibility for international public financing for climate efforts in developing countries could be 10-30%. Clearly, it needs to be close to the top end of this scale to realistically reflect the responsibility of the EU, based on its historical emissions and its ability to pay, not just its share of current emissions.

"Overall, the underlying assumptions show that the Commission sees most of the global emissions reductions by 2020 taking place in developing countries. This is a clear renouncement of EU's purported leadership on climate change and ignores the EU's responsibility.

"The EU has committed to the goal of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees. If it is serious, it will need to urgently step up its effort, committing to domestic emissions reductions of at least 40% by 2020, as well as climate financing in the region of €35bn. Anything less risks making the 2 degree goal completely unattainable and thereby opens the door to dangerous climate change."