EU finance ministers’ inertia threatens to derail international climate negotiations

EU finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg today have failed to agree on financial support for climate measures in developing countries. Greenpeace warned that the EU's inertia sends a worrying signal to delegates meeting in Bonn this week to prepare the ground for the Copenhagen global climate agreement.

EU finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg today have failed to agree on financial support for climate measures in developing countries. Greenpeace warned that the EU's inertia sends a worrying signal to delegates meeting in Bonn this week to prepare the ground for the Copenhagen global climate agreement.

"All it will take is for EU countries to raise the equivalent of the price of a bus ticket for each European citizen every week. But EU finance ministers have put their own political concerns ahead of an opportunity to break the deadlock in global climate talks.  The looming economic catastrophe of dangerous climate change will make today's economic woes look like a walk in the park," said Joris den Blanken, Greenpeace EU climate and energy policy director.

Although the EU made a small step by agreeing to criteria to divide up the funding burden between industrialised nations, finance ministers were still unable to put concrete figures on the table. Ministers even ignored the advice of their own financial experts, who called for EUR 100 billion in funding to help developing countries reduce emissions, and failed to make the clear and quantified commitments required to provide additional public funding for adaptation in developing countries.

The Greenpeace European Unit is based in Brussels, where we monitor and analyse the work of the institutions of the European Union (EU), expose deficient EU policies and laws, and challenge decision-makers to implement progressive solutions.