EU summit to offer 1 bn euro climate sweetener

BRUSSELS - The European Union leaders are to push for a cash handout of at least 1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to help poor countries fight climate change next year when they meet for a summit in Brussels Thursday, according to internal documents.

The EU is keen to convince world powers to sign up to a deal on fighting climate change at UN talks in Copenhagen. The bloc had not been due to offer a concrete amount of funding until after the Copenhagen talks, but it is now keen to put firm figures on the table to pressurise other major states do the same.

“The Copenhagen agreement should include provisions on immediate action, starting in 2010… EU member states are ready to contribute with fast-start funding… for the years 2010 to 2012,” a draft statement prepared for Thursday’s summit in Brussels reads.

The aid would be used to help poor countries, specially those most threatened by climate change, fight against global warming.

The decision on exactly how much the EU should offer will fall to national leaders at the summit. However, the bloc’s executive, the European Commission, estimates that total world funding will have to reach 5-7 billion euros a year from 2010 to 2012.

At a summit Oct 29, EU leaders said that member states would “contribute their fair share” towards that sum as long as “other key players (make) comparable efforts”.

They also agreed that the final offer would only be made “in the light of the outcome of the Copenhagen conference”.

However, since then the EU has been alarmed by statements of major powers such as the US and China that the Copenhagen talks will not end in a binding deal - one of the bloc’s key demands.

The bloc is therefore keen to hint at a more concrete offer in a bid to wring concessions from negotiating partners.