BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Union promised billions of dollars in aid to the world's poorest nations on Wednesday to entice them to sign a new global climate change pact.
The plan by EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas was part of a presentation of the EU's negotiating position for the U.N.-sponsored climate change talks in Copenhagen later this year.
Dimas said financing would be vital for getting global agreement in Copenhagen, adding that developing countries can ill afford to pay an estimated euro54 billion ($71.1 billion) per year by 2030 to meet climate change commitments.
The EU's top environmental official said the proposals call for a new global climate pact that will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent of 1990 levels by 2020 and that temperature increases stay below 2 degrees Celsius.
The proposals also recommend that the 30-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes the world's wealthiest countries, be bound to mandatory carbon emissions cuts and sign up to an emissions trading plan.
The plan also suggests China, India, and Brazil agreed to and sign the plans by 2020.
The EU's executive office however, backed away from setting a specific sum that richer countries, including the 27-nation bloc, should hand over to poorer members to help them implement cuts in carbon dioxide emissions and invest in greener energy sources like wind, solar or hydroelectric power.
Earlier drafts of the EU plan had recommended wealthy and industrialized countries "commit to euro30 billion ($40 billion) in new annual public funding by 2020."
Dimas said "this amount could be needed for supporting the actions in developing countries, but this figure will be negotiated and depends on the level of ambitions" of the developing countries.
He rejected claims that a specific figure was scrapped because of pressure to shift EU funds to fight the economic recession.
Aid and environmental groups said omitting a specific aid target would hurt the credibility of the EU as a global leader in fighting climate change.
"The European Commission is ratcheting down its ambition at a time when the world should be stepping up efforts to tackle climate change," said Tom Sharman from ActionAid.
Greenpeace also criticized the plan, saying "concrete financial commitments are necessary to build trust" with poorer countries to get a climate deal.
The groups said wealthy nations should be spending up to euro125 billion ($165 billion) a year to help developing countries.
The EU's 27 leaders agreed in December to cut greenhouse emissions by 20 percent and ensure that 20 percent of energy comes from wind, sun and other renewable sources by 2020. However, they said they could increase their cuts to 30 percent if key nations like the United States, Russia and China follow suit.
