Rich-poor divide could be Copenhagen climate 'deal-breaker'

(STOCKHOLM) - World leaders could fail to reach a new climate deal at a UN summit in Copenhagen if rich countries refuse to financially help developing nations tackle climate change, government and NGO officials said at a development conference that wrapped up Saturday.

With less than 50 days to go before it starts, the Copenhagen summit was a central topic of debate and discussion at the annual EU development conference, held in Stockholm.

"We don't think they'll be a deal without the right funding package," Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International, told AFP, urging the European Union to agree on how to finance developing countries' switch to low-carbon strategies.

While most officials remained positive about a climate deal being reached at the December 7-18 summit, Hobbs' comments highlighted a growing concern that efforts to replace the Kyoto protocol could be hampered by the problems of securing agreement between developed and developing countries.

"Things are looking possible, but this is a potential spanner in the works," Hobbs said. "This could be a deal breaker."

Many leaders of developing countries at the conference pleaded for help to switch to cleaner energies, saying their countries were hardest hit by a crisis the developed world helped to create.

"We urgently need your support in helping us adapt to the negative effects of climate change," the presidents of Liberia and Sierra Leone, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Ernest Bai Koroma, said in a joint statement.

They stressed their West African nations were "disproportionately affected by the climate crisis," saying it was crisis for which they were the least prepared.

"Developing countries are of the opinion that they should not have to pay the bill for what industrialised countries have done," said Koos Richelle, the head of EuropeAid, adding that rich countries realised they had to take up a large part of the burden.

"How much exactly is a matter of negotiations, and that will only become clear in the end game, when we are in Copenhagen," saying the European Union would not divulge a common stance before the summit.

"That's hopeless," argued Hobbs, saying Europe had been a leader in terms of emission cuts targets and urging the 27-nation block to reach a common agreement on helping the developing world before the start of the summit.

"We don't think there is room for the European Union to go to Copenhagen without a clear position on how much money its going to put on the table," he said.