Several European countries commit to help developing economies

Negotiators from around 200 countries picked up the pace of the climate change talks in Doha on Thursday, as the meeting entered its final stage.

Following the lead of the United Kingdom, a few other European countries have committed to boosting funding to help developing economies address climate change.

Isaac Valero-Ladron, climate spokesman for the European Commission, told China Daily that five European countries and the European Commission have pledged around 7 billion euros ($9.1 billion) for the period after 2012.

"The European Union is delivering, and there are numbers there. The UK, 2.2 billion euros; Germany, 1.8 billion euros; France, 2 billion euros; Denmark, 67 million euros, Sweden, 283 million euros and the European Commission, 900 million euros," he said.

"Over the next year, more member states will continue with their pledges," he added.

Developing economies have suggested a mid-term finance target for 2015 to ensure that the commitment made by developed economies to raise $100 billion a year by 2020 will be reached.

However, both the EU and the United States said they would not make concrete midterm funding pledges.

"For the moment, we are not in the position to have any midterm development target," said Valero-Ladron.

Funding support from developed countries for 2013 to 2015 must be put into place during this meeting, Xie Zhenhua, head of the Chinese delegation and China's top climate change official, said at a news conference attended by ministers from the BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Ministers from the four countries called on all parties to work together and leave Doha with an outcome that could be satisfactory in a balanced way.

Xie reiterated that a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol must be ensured at Doha and a gap between the first and second commitment periods must be avoided when the first expires by the end of the year.

There are still four key issues pending under the Kyoto Protocol working group, which are to be determined by the ministers on Friday, said Li Shuo, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia.

He said the most important one is whether and how the surplus of assigned amount units from the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol can be carried over to meet mitigation targets after 2012, as insisted by some developed economies such as Poland, the host country of next year's climate conference.

"Another pending issue is whether there will be a smooth transition between the first and second commitment period with no regulatory gap," Li said.

The third issue is whether developed countries outside the protocol or its second commitment period should be given eligibility to use units generated from market-based mechanisms to assist them in achieving their emission reduction commitments.

"The last one is a new issue generated during the second week of talks," he said.

"Developing economies have reached an agreement to demand a 'mid-term review' from some developed economies on their emission reduction commitments at a certain time during the second commitment period."

Li said this option was brought up to increase the ambition of developed countries' commitments.

Contact the writers at lanlan@chinadaily.com.cn and wuwencong@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/07/2012 page11)