Climate change: Commission's communiqué is "immoral"

Our response to the European Commission's climate communiqué - it "seriously lacks ambition"

The European Commission has stated that the EU should provide $2-15bn each year to help poor countries protect themselves against impacts of climate change.

The UN estimates poor nations will need about $100bn (£60bn) per year for climate adaptation, and the Commission says it thinks about 40% of that will come from the global carbon market supposed to emerge from the upcoming Copenhagen summit, with the remainder from domestic spending by the countries affected, and from international public financing.

Liz Gallagher, CAFOD head of climate finance policy, says: "The Commission's communiqué is going for the lowest common denominator - it seriously lacks ambition.

"There is no mention that the money provided by rich countries must be additional to pledged aid levels. The Commission is neglecting its responsibility to compensate poor people for the damage our emissions have caused.

"Poor people will suffer the first and worst due to climate change, and yet have done the least to cause it.

"To make matters worse, Europe could now end up diverting pledged aid used for healthcare and education in poor communities towards reducing the impact of climate change, which we caused in the first place – this is robbing Peter to pay Paul - to allow this to happen is immoral.

"The Commission had the opportunity to build on Gordon Brown's leadership to make climate finance additional to aid commitments, but failed.

"The EU were once the leading lights on climate change, but the financial crisis is dimming their leadership. Whilst billions of pounds are currently being made available to alleviate pressure on the markets, we are neglecting the survival of those in poor communities."

Our position

We state the EU’s fair share to contribute towards addressing the causes and impacts of climate change in developing countries is €35bn per annum by 2020 – the Commission talks of an estimated €2-15bn per annum.

We have been urging the EU to make public finance for climate change additional to 0.7% overseas development assistance – the Commission makes no explicit reference on additionality to 0.7%, only stating “finance provided for adaptation and mitigation should therefore not come at the expense of traditional development finance”.

Media: For further information and interviews, contact Pascale Palmer on 07785 950 585 / 020 7095 5459

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