Divided EU leaders urged to agree climate funding

(BRUSSELS) - The Swedish EU presidency urged European leaders to use Thursday's summit to agree on hard figures to help poor nations tackle climate change, amid resistance especially from eastern Europe.

But while leaders have already agreed on broad objectives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, vowing to cut them by 20 percent by 2020, they are split on how to share the costs, both within and outside Europe.

"I want a mention of a sum... let's see what is possible, it's coming close to the decisive moment, we're not ready yet," said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.

"I also want a mention of the sum because it's needed for other developed countries," he added.

The European Union is keen to enter international climate talks in Copenhagen starting December 7 speaking with a unified voice to encourage the rest of the world, particularly the United States and China, to commit to swingeing emissions cuts themselves.

However the question of how to help developing nations pay for action against climate change remains a major bone of contention, with poorer central and eastern European countries showing little enthusiasm to put their hands in their pockets.

Led by Poland and its coal-fuelled power stations, they say they will be overly penalised if too much emphasis is put on emissions, arguing that the more developed western European nations should fork out, given their past pollution.

"We are not going to give out agreement to a mechanism that says those responsible for the most emissions should pay the most," said Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

"In the current form, the burden-sharing proposal is not acceptable to us," added Hungary's Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai.

He said this view is also shared by Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia -- all newer members who have joined since 2004.

Lithuania's president Dalia Grybauskaite said the position of the nine was not uniform -- but that they were in no rush to be bounced into an early deal.

"Everybody wants to finalise everything by tomorrow evening -- I'm not sure 100 percent... There is still time before Copenhagen" for more negotiations, she underlined.

She said Lithuania "will agree to some mix of emissions and GDP in the (funding) formula" but argued for the EU to agree a lower amount -- well below 15 billion -- in the final "compromise."

The European Commission estimates that 100 billion euros (147 billion dollars) will have to be found annually by 2020, with 22-50 billion euros of that to be found from public coffers.

The commission hopes that Europe's contribution will reach up to 15 billion euros per year in the 2013-2020 period, and is also calling for 1.5 billion euros to be provided annually between 2010 and 2013.

New commission simulations showing how the load-share could be altered -- based on alternative percentages for emissions and GDP -- point to the effort going into reducing eastern fears.

But while environmental groups argue more not less is required, some countries argue that their cupboards are already bare due to the legacy of recession.

"There are still divisions on the criteria and on burden-sharing," said Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, standing-in for his scarlet fever-hit prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

But Germany's newly-returned Chancellor Angela Merkel, previously pinpointed as leading another group who want to wait for the outcome in Copenhagen before going into internal detail, said some kind of deal would happen.

The leaders "are going to clearly say that we want to see an ambitious accord reached in Copenhagen," she said, ahead of upcoming EU summits with China, India and the US.

That would involve "clearly showing that we are ready to make gestures and send signals," to those countries, "including timeframes and financial aid."