EU Reaches Climate-Change Financing Deal

In an effort to show unity as they approach global climate change talks in Copenhagen in December, the European Union reached agreement Friday on how much would be needed to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gases enough to meet international goals.

The EU member nations meeting in Brussels agreed that $148 billion would be required annually by 2020 to help developing countries.

In a press release, the EU said:

Heads of state and government meeting in Brussels on 29 and 30 October clinched a deal on climate financing. "The EU now has a very strong negotiating position when the countdown to Copenhagen has started," declared Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, current President of the European Council. The EU continues to take the lead in this process...

Before 2020 however, the EU agreed that $7.4 billion to $10.4 billion would be needed annually to fund the developing nations efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions. EU members would contribute their "fair share to this goal on a voluntary basis," the EU agreed. The EU conditioned this on the U.S. and other major nations doing their part.

 

More from the EU release:

...Each member state's share of the total burden will be decided after Copenhagen, taking into account each country's ability to pay.

Before the deal could be reached, the EU had to deal with the concerns of the poorest EU nations who feared the impact the agreement could have on the economies.

The Czech Republic concerns that had nothing to do with climate change. Instead, an issue related to the shadow World War II still casts over Europe.

Czech president Vaclav Claus had requested an opt-out clause from the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, part of the Lisbon Treaty, before he would move on the climate negotiations. The Czechs feared that the charter would allow Germans who lost land in what is now the Czech Republic as a result of World War II to try and reclaim their property.

Another snippet from the EU press release:

As a response to a Czech request concerning the Lisbon treaty, EU leaders granted the Czech Republic an opt-out from the Charter of fundamental rights. "The road to final ratification of the treaty is now open," said Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. The presidency is ready to act as soon as the Czech Constitutional Court gives its green light and the Czech President signs the treaty.

Greenpeace, the environmental group, used the EU agreement to try and motivate the Obama Administration to move more aggressively on climate chance. Not only did the EU nations agree on financing for developing countries but the also recommitted to the goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 2020 to 30 percent below 1990 levels. The U.S. has only spoken of overall reductions in the neighborhood of 4 percent.

A snippet from Greenpeace's release:

"The European commitments raise the stakes for the climate negotiations," said Damon Moglen, Director of Greenpeace USA's Global Warming Campaign. "As the country with the greatest historical responsibility for causing climate change, the US now needs to lead the way in addressing this problem. Its an embarrassment that while other countries are developing clean and renewable technology, the US seems addicted to its fossil fuels and unwilling to enter the clean energy era. President Obama pledged to lead on climate change, he needs to bring much more ambitious commitments to the upcoming climate negotiations."