Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 13 • Number 36 • 21st October 2009

Major Economies Find ‘Substantial Agreement’ on Climate Financing, but Hurdles Remain

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High-level officials from 16 industrialised nations plus the European Union focused on climate change at a two-day meeting of the Major Economies Forum in London earlier this week. Pressure is mounting as a major year-end climate meeting in Copenhagen draws near, but the multilateral talks on how to slow the world’s emissions of climate-warming gases continue to be marked by deep divisions.

“There are now fewer than 50 days to set the course for the next few decades, so as we convene here we carry great responsibilities, and the world is watching,” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the officials on Monday. “I believe agreement at Copenhagen is possible, but we must frankly face the fact that our negotiations are not getting to agreement quickly enough.”

But while the meeting brought no major breakthroughs, the officials did find some new common ground. A communiqué issued after the meeting said that there was “substantial agreement” that “significantly scaled up financing will be important” in any climate deal, media sources reported. Financing from developed countries to support poorer nations’ mitigation and adaptation efforts is a commitment under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Developing countries have repeatedly stressed that rich nations have so far failed to deliver on financing; they insist that their ability to contribute to future mitigation is contingent on fulfilment of this commitment.

Officials at the London meeting further agreed that all countries except the poorest will provide regular inventories of their national emissions, with the qualifier that such “transparency mechanisms” would “respect the sovereignty of countries.” The communiqué called on G20 finance ministers to “advance these discussions” further at their meeting in St. Andrews in Scotland, that is scheduled for 6 and 7 November.

“There was a universal view that we need to get an agreement in Copenhagen - not an agreement at any price, but that we’ve come a long way and we intend to translate that into an agreement by the end of the year,” Ed Miliband, Britain’s Energy and Climate Secretary, told journalists after the meeting closed on Monday.

The landscape of the negotiations seemed on the brink of a significant shift earlier this week. Indian media reported on Tuesday that the country’s government was in a deadlock over a new proposal that would have New Delhi dramatically alter its stance in the talks. Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh reportedly wrote a confidential letter to the Indian Prime Minister on 13 October suggesting that the country abandon its support of the Kyoto Protocol and withdraw from the G77, the developing country negotiating bloc.

But the proposed shift, which would have brought India more in line with the stances of the major rich-country parties in the talks, met with fierce opposition within the government. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Ramesh took a step back.

“India is working, and will continue to work, closely with our partners in the G77 and China in articulating a common position on this issue, while also engaging with other countries to our benefit,” Ramesh said. “I have never at any stage considered or advocated abandoning the fundamental tenets of the Kyoto Protocol,” he added.

The Major Economies Forum comprises Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, Denmark, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Sweden and the United States. The countries of the MEF account for roughly 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

More information

A full transcript of Prime Minister Brown’s speech is available here: http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page21033

ICTSD reporting; “Major Economies Forum narrows divergence on climate change negotiations,” XINHUA, 19 October 2009; “Stance on climate change splits government,” LIVEMINT, 20 October 2009.