EU says rich states must pay up to save climate agreement

José Manuel Barroso outlines what is needed for an agreement on global warming at Copenhagen
The EU set aside diplomatic language and issued a bare-boned challenge to industrialised countries to come up with the cash developing countries need to deal with climate change today.
The unusually blunt language from the European commission's president, José Manuel Barroso, on what was needed for an agreement on global warming at Copenhagen was delivered as leaders began arriving in Pittsburgh for a G20 summit of major economies.
In a speech at Pittsburgh University, Barroso said the industrialised economies would have to make significant reductions in emissions as well as make "a credible financial commitment" to help developing states obtain new greener technology. "In other words, no money, no deal," he said.
But Barroso also said there would be no blank cheques for rapidly developing countries such as India, China and Brazil which need the new technology if they are to avoid huge increases in future greenhouse gas emissions.
"If you are serious about the challenge of cutting emissions, we will be there to help, including with financial support. But we need developing countries to contribute to mitigation," he said. "In other words, no action, no money."
Barroso was also scathing about the red tape surrounding the negotiations. "The text that is currently on the table contains 200 pages with a feast of alternatives and a forest of square brackets," he said. "If we do not sort this out, it risks becoming the longest suicide note in history."
Barroso's comments cut to the heart of the standoff between industrialised countries and the emerging economies. An EU official said the comments did not apply to the world's poorest states, which will be most vulnerable to climate change. Funding for those states was "a given".
America and others have been pressing hard for the newly emerging countries to make firm commitments to reduce their future emissions. In his speech to the UN climate change summit this week, Barack Obama delivered a pointed message that the rapidly industrialised states would also have to curb emissions as part of a climate change deal.
The pressure appears to be getting results. China and India earlier this week did offer some pledges of action on climate change, but both fell short on specifics. By making a conditional offer of assistance, Barroso was seen as trying to get them to commit to more specific action.
Environmental organisations praised the statement for its clarity in a negotiation process that has stalled partly because of its own complexity. "They've really got to the crux of the issue: no money, no deal," said Liz Gallagher, the director of climate finance policy for the Catholic charity Cafod.
Barroso's effort to knock heads together may not produce the desired effect. India's environment minister, Jairam Ramesh said it was "not very helpful".
India's climate change envoy, Shyam Saran, agreed with Barroso on the importance of unlocking climate finance, but he said India would not move further on reducing its own emissions.
"We will not be able to talk direct reduction targets of the kind which developed countries are obliged to take," he told reporters. "However that does not mean that India is not taking a number of significant mitigation actions itself."
Barroso's tough talk could also further complicate the discussions on climate finance at the G20. India and China have fought hard to try to prevent the G20 leaders from even taking up the issue of climate finance in their meetings today.
Barroso did not address the other fault line in the negotiations towards a climate change deal at Copenhagen: who will pay to protect the poorest countries that will bear the brunt of climate change. Diplomats say the EU is hoping to build trust by putting together a package of short-term financing to shield these countries from climate change.
The fund, between €5bn (£4.6bn) and €7bn, would be paid out from 2010 to 2012 and would focus on protecting the most vulnerable – low-lying states and island nations such as the Maldives – from rising seas and extreme weather.
The consequences for the most vulnerable states of climate change grew even more stark yesterday with a report from the UN Environmental Programme warning its pace and scale was exceeding even the most definitive predictions made in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007.
Sea levels could rise by as much as 6ft by the end of the century – instead of the 18in projected by the IPCC. The Arctic could be in summer ice-free as soon as 2030 rather than 2100.