EU Pledges $15 Billion for Climate Change

BRUSSELS - EUROPEAN Union leaders said they have agreed to commit 7.2 billion euros (S$14.7 billion) over three years to an international global warming fund, a deal that should boost efforts to help poorer nations cope with climate change.

The offer, said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, 'puts Europe in a leadership role in Copenhagen'. All 27 members of the EU agreed on the figure after two days of difficult talks at a summit in Brussels.

The 'fast start' money of 2.4 billion euros a year until 2012 is part of a global annual fund of US$10 billion (S$13.9 billion) that rich nations are targeting as short-term help, until the new climate agreement kicks in.

'It is less expensive to protect the planet now than to repair it later,' said EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso.

The pledge was praised by United Nations climate chief Yvo de Boer, who described it as a 'huge encouragement' to the talks unfolding in Copenhagen.

Europe's leaders hope to encourage more generosity through their own voluntary pledges, and had earlier proposed to make 100 billion euros available to poorer nations annually by 2020.

Source: straitstimes.com