EU nations to commit $3 billion a year to global climate fund, Brown and Sarkozy say

EU nations to commit $3 billion to climate fund

BRUSSELS — The leaders of Britain and France say EU leaders will commit more than euro2 billion ($3 billion) a year to help poorer parts of the world combat global warming.

Britain’s Gordon Brown and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy said their two countries would contribute a big part of that sum and they are trying to get the full 27-member European Union to pitch in more at a summit in Brussels ending Friday.

EU leaders failed Thursday to come up with a firm figure for the fund.

The money is meant as short-term help for poor countries, particularly in Africa, to start cutting emissions and shoring up against the effects of global warming. The European money is a bid to bolster international climate talks in Copenhagen aiming at a longer-term pact.