Britain, France propose $30 bln green fund
PORT OF SPAIN. November 28. KAZINFORM Britain and France are proposing to back anti-climate change action with 30 billion U.S. dollars via an environmental fund that will be spent during the years 2010, 2011 and 2012, France's President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday; Kazinform refers to Xinhua.
"Alongside British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, we are proposing 10 billion dollars a year each of the first three years after Copenhagen," Sarkozy told a press conference in Trinidad and Tobago, where he had flown to join the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
In June, Mexico had proposed a similar idea: 10 billion dollars to be administered by the World Bank to which all nations would pay in, but from which poorer nations that make significant carbon dioxide reductions would be able to withdraw most.
Friday was the first time that a French president has attended a CHOGM, a meeting held every two years for the Commonwealth, an organization of 53 member nations most of whom are former British Colonies. The United Nations' Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is also in Port of Spain to speak with CHOGM heads of state about climate change as is Denmark's Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
During his press conference, Sarkozy said he was encouraged by the fact that during the last three days, both the United States and China had both published proposals for carbon dioxide reduction to be formally decided in Copenhagen, where 192-nations are set to meet to craft an agreement that will replace 1997's Kyoto Protocol.
"During the last three days things have really been moving forward," Sarkozy said. Until recent days nations had been unwilling to put a figure on how much they would reduce emissions and when.
This week China said it would cut emissions 40 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2020 and the United States said it would reduce its output by 17 percent using the same criteria; Kazinform cites Xinhua.
See www.chinaview.cn for full version