EU in row over additional aid for climate change

Aid agencies have accused the European Union of threatening to fatally undermine forthcoming United Nations climate change talks in Copenhagen by proposing to use existing rather than additional overseas aid funding to help developing countries adapt to global warming.

Confidential papers seen by the Guardian newspaper show that the EU has erased lines from the negotiating text of next month’s summit, which highlight the idea that climate change financing should be provided on top of existing development aid.

Developing nations are unanimous that such terms cannot be altered and are insisting on a minimum of £242bn per annum by 2020 to help them fight global warming, compared with the developed world’s offer of only £100bn per year.

As a result, Rob Bailey, Oxfam’s senior policy adviser, said that the new proposals were likely to sabotage any deal as no southern nation would sign up to an agreement where they received no extra money at all.

Although industrialised countries agree they must provide financial help to poor nations to assist them in coping with growing numbers of droughts, floods and the effects of rising sea levels, Europe is understood to be split over where the funding should come from.

The UK and Holland believe that any investment should supplement existing aid, while Germany, France and most of the smaller member states want existing aid to be employed.

The latter scenario would see major reductions in the amount of money available to some of the poorest nations in the world to spend on cutting poverty and improving health, education and water quality.

Embarrassingly for the UK, however, it has emerged that, despite its public stance on financing, all of the climate change funding pledged or provided to the developing world so far has come from existing aid budgets.

Prime minister Gordon Brown’s pledge on Friday to put £800m towards a new £10 billion global fund, which he suggested in order to kickstart post-Copenhagen action is also expected to be drawn from existing budgets.

The EU also has a poor track record on meeting its funding commitments in this area.

At a UN meeting in Bonn in 2001, Europe along with Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland, agreed to jointly contribute £200m a year from 2005 to 2008 to help developing countries combat climate change. They have so far delivered barely one-tenth of what was pledged.

Meanwhile, Ed Miliband yesterday issued a statement asking politicians and the public to keep up the pressure for an agreement to be reached in Copenhagen.

"Every day, in any way we can, we will be pushing every country to show the necessary ambition for the agreement we need," he said.

"Copenhagen can and must succeed but it still needs maximum pressure from politicians and public alike."