EU to Give Billions to Fight Climate Change

By ALESSANDRO TORELLO
BRUSSELS -- The European Union could award up to €15 billion ($21.8 billion) a year by 2020 to finance the fight against climate change in developing countries, setting out a blueprint for negotiations on a global deal to fight climate change later this year.
"This initiative aims to maximize the chances of concluding an ambitious global climate change agreement" at a Copenhagen global meeting in December, the European Commcommission said in a statement.
Developing countries are likely to need €100 billion a year by 2020 to limit their greenhouse-gas emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change, the commission said. If an ambitious agreement is reached in December, the EU could contribute between €2 billion and €15 billion a year by 2020, it added.
The EU wants to lead negotiations at the Copenhagen summit to reach an international agreement to fight climate change and keep global warming under two degrees Celsius. The deal would be the successor of the Kyoto protocol, negotiated more than a decade ago.
The commission's statement Thursday is crucial for Copenhagen because it will form the basis of the EU position at the talks, after it is analyzed by the 27 member countries and the European Parliament.
Financing for developing countries is a crucial element of the negotiation, because developed countries expect the more economically advanced developing ones to contribute to the fight against climate change, while the developing countries want to see a clear position from richer nations on financing their efforts.
A crucial part of the debate will be about the role that emerging countries such as China, India or Brazil will be called to play in tackling climate change, as their economies grow and they begin to increase their proportion of greenhouse gas emissions.
Write to Alessandro Torello at alessandro.torello@dowjones.com