Clinton Lifts Copenhagen Gloom with Support for $100B Climate Fund

Published December 17, 2009

Copenhagen, Denmark — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attempted to breathe new life into the moribund Copenhagen summit this morning, signaling for the first time that the U.S. would support an E.U. proposal for a $100 billion (£62bn) a year climate fund to come into effect from 2020.

Clinton told reporters that in the event of a "strong operational accord" being agreed, the U.S. would support the proposals for a $100 billion-a-year fund to help poorer nations invest in clean technologies and climate adaptation measures.

The move comes a day after Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi said that the African group of nations would support the $100 billion plan and proposed the formation of a commission to report on the various financing mechanisms that could be deployed to raise the required money.

Clinton's intervention lifted the mood of the summit, which this morning appeared to be heading for collapse, and will significantly increase the chances of a deal on climate funding being reached.

However, she insisted that U.S. support for the funding proposal was contingent on emerging economies, and specifically China, agreeing to greater transparency in their reporting of greenhouse gas emissions.

"It would be hard to imagine, speaking for the U.S., that there could be the legal or financial commitment that I've just announced in the absence of transparency from the second biggest emitter, and now I guess the first biggest," she said.

She added that the U.S. was still looking for a "comprehensive and operational" agreement. "I understand the talks have been difficult," she said, "[but] there is a way forward."

However, in a sign that the brinkmanship that has characterized the past few days of the talks will go on into the last day, Clinton failed to completely quell rumors that President Obama may cancel his planned attendance at the summit. "The president is planning to come tomorrow," she said. "Obviously, we hope there will be something to come for."

In a morning of fast-moving developments, the Chinese delegation attempted to distance itself from reports that it had given up hope on reaching an agreement.

China's climate change ambassador Yu Qingtai told Reuters that the country remained fully committed to sealing a deal.

"I do not know where this rumor came from but I can assure you that the Chinese delegation came to Copenhagen with hope and we have not given it up," he said. "Copenhagen is too important to fail."

His comments came as Gordon Brown delivered a keynote address in which he insisted that an agreement could be reached. "There is no insuperable barrier of finance, no inevitable deficit of political will, no unsurmountable wall of division that need prevent us from rising to the much-needed common purpose," he said.

He also proposed the outline of a compromise deal based on a commitment by all industrialized nations to cut emissions 80 percent by 2050, sign up to the highest proposed cuts for 2020, and provide $10 billion a year between 2010 and 2012, and $100 billion a year from 2020 through a mixture of public and private finance.

In return, he said that developing countries should commit to significant reductions in emissions from business-as-usual levels. He added that any deal should also commit to a legally binding treaty being signed within six months.