Of course I’ll give you that fiver I owe you…is 2020 ok?
Posted on 31. Oct, 2009 by annac in E.U., United Kingdom
Though of course the EU use Euros...
If someone owed you a fiver and they told you they’d pay you back in 2020 I don’t think you’d be too impressed!
Oh, and wait, not only are they not going to pay you until 2020, they are also going to pay you out of your birthday money!
But that is exactly what the EU is doing when it comes to climate finance.
For months now I have been banging on about the need for the EU to put numbers on the table. Yesterday they did that.
The said that the price tag for tackling climate change, would be 100 billion Euros a year, by 2020.
You’re probably thinking, 100 billion Euros… seems good…no?
But all is not as good as this first figure would seem.
Because only up to half of that (22-50 billion Euros) would come from public money, leaving the rest in the hands of the private sector (and we’ve seen that work so well in the past…).
The EU also failed to agree on short-term targets for money, and even more crucially there is no guarantee that this money would be new money and not just diverted from existing aid commitments. So we could just be paying with money we already said we would give… hang on a minute…isn’t that called fiddling the books!
They also got bogged down in arguing how this money would be split in Europe.
East and West Europe became pitted against each other over how much they should each contribute, and countries threw their dummies out of the pram over making firm commitments…. because the US haven’t made any yet.
When are we going to stop using the US as an excuse for inaction!
Gordon Brown said “Europe is leading the way, making these bold proposals,”
But leading the way to where?
Climate catastrophe?
Millions more people being plunged in poverty?
It’s time for countries to start getting ambitious and specific. A nice figure with all these details missing is not good enough!
This week is the perfect opportunity to really be bold.
After an amazing train trip through Europe (what better way to spend a day than in a comfy seat on a train, no wifi, no emails, just a good book and beautiful scenery whizzing by) I have arrived in Barcelona.
Because the UNFCCC circus is back!
This time we have just one week. That’s it 5 days…
The last 5 days of UN negotiations before Copenhagen!
So this EU announcement could be important. It only takes a little push to send a huge boulder rolling down the hill. We can only hope that this announcement from the EU, as poor as he details were, may be that little push.
The little push that starts a huge movement in the negotiations.
This week we shall see. Let the UNFCCC crazyness commence!
The Adopter - Anna Collins
Anna Collins Born and bred in Warrington in the *sunny* North of England, Anna was brought up by parents with a deep sense of justice and taught to always fight for what she believed is right. "I guess you could say it was in the blood, my gran went to Greenham Common in the 80s"... read more»
The Adopted - Meet Jan & the UK Delegation
Jan Thompson (otherwise known to Anna simply as Jan!) is the lead climate change negotiator for the United Kingdom. The UK has a large negotiating team who each cover different sections of the negotiations, however Jan takes the lead and brings everything together. read more»
Great blog Anna! The public - private sector divide is really worrying. It’s clear that we need lots of money up front for developing countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change that are already having devestating impacts on their lives. There’s no way that the private sector will be able to generate the kind of money needed in the short term.
Look forward to reading more of your updates over the coming week!