Sweden calls for climate finance pledge

Sweden seeks pledges from member states on climate adaptation.

The Swedish government wants next week’s European Council to pledge to pay out billions of euros to help poorer countries cope with the effects of climate change.

Senior advisers to Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt have begun a round of bilateral discussions with other EU member states to seek promises of money from 2010. Today (3 December) EU ambassadors will begin their first round of negotiations on how much the EU should pledge in ‘fast-start’ finance to the least-developed countries.

Paying a fair share

In October, EU leaders promised to pay their “fair share” of the international climate finance bill, estimating the need for upfront cash to be €5 billion-€7bn per year in 2010-12. The European Commission estimates that the EU could contribute around one-third of this total. The UK has promised £800 million (€884m) for 2010-12. The Netherlands is ready to give €300m. The German government is still discussing a possible pledge.

Last month the UN’s top climate change official, Yvo de Boer, urged rich countries to pledge $10bn (€6.64bn) per year for three years to kick-start immediate action in developing countries.

A first draft of next week’s EU summit communiqué states: “The Copenhagen agreement should include provisions on immediate action after Copenhagen starting in 2010 and acknowledges that this requires scaled-up financial support.” The draft contains a space to insert a figure on finance over 2010-12.

Eventually, developing countries will need billions of euros to adapt to unavoidable climate change and to get their economies on a green path. European leaders have agreed that the total bill could run to €100bn annually by 2020, with money to come from public and private sources. But at this stage EU leaders are not expected to spell out more details on their possible longer-term contribution.

EU officials have largely given up hope of Copenhagen delivering a legally binding agreement, but the European Council is expected to call for a legal text to be drawn up within six months of the Danish talks.

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