Poor nations 'must stop blaming rich for emissions'

Published on Friday 6 November 2009 21:45

THE poor countries of the world cannot delay acting on global warming by blaming climate change on the rich, Chancellor Alistair Darling has warned ahead of a key meeting of G20 finance ministers in St Andrews today.

As the group meets to discuss plans for a $100 billion scheme to help developing countries cut emissions, Mr Darling said it was fruitless for those nations to continue to argue that, as the developed world had caused the most pollution, it should take sole responsibility for cleaning the mess up.

He claimed that, with 90 per cent of future emissions likely to come from developing or emerging countries, it was no longer sustainable for major economies, such as China or India, to continue to grow using fossil-fuelled power.

The Chancellor was speaking to The Scotsman before a key meeting of his fellow finance ministers in St Andrews this afternoon, where the issue of climate finance is high on the agenda.

The talks are the last in a series in which leaders agreed a $1trillion "fiscal stimulus" in the wake of global recession.

Mr Darling is hoping to broker a multi-billion package to help developing countries to wean themselves off high-carbon power. However, the talks are stalling with rich and poor countries miles apart on how much each should pay.

Developing economies have said that, with the industrialised West having caused so much of the world's carbon emissions so far, and having built their countries on it, it is wrong to expect them to meet the cost of a finance package.

The deal will be thrashed out at the Copenhagen climate change summit next month, but Mr Darling and Environment Secretary Ed Miliband have accepted that a binding treaty may now be out of reach.

The Chancellor insisted he would be telling finance ministers today that they needed to put in the "necessary action" to back up their words. The UK government has pledged 1bn towards a global climate finance pot.

But while rich countries needed to pay up, he said that emerging countries, such as China and India, needed to draw a line under the past. He added:

"Seventy-five per cent of the emissions we have at the moment were caused by the developed world. That's true. But 90 per cent of the future emissions are going to come from the developing and emerging economies, so we all need to be sitting around the table."

He went on: "We know what has happened historically, but that doesn't help you in a situation where India and China are building a coal-fired power station every week without carbon capture and storage, for example.

"What happened in the past you can't change. What you can change is what happens in the future. We have got to try and break down those barriers".

Mr Darling said he would step up his efforts to persuade rich countries in the G20 to stump up their fair share of money. But he warned that many are reluctant to do so, because they have little confidence in the way the money will be handled.

There is growing pessimism that those barriers will not be brought down in time for the Copenhagen summit, and that hopes of a deal to reduce carbon emissions will remain distant.

Climate change and measures to ensure long-term growth in the global economy will be at the top of today's agenda.

Mr Darling said the G20 countries were united in their belief that existing fiscal stimulus packages needed to stay in place for now. "I think we can reach agreement on firstly making sure we don't remove support too early, because the recovery is by no means established everywhere," he said.

The G20 will also consider how to ensure more balanced growth over the coming decade, to avoid a repeat of last year's financial meltdown.

Outside the G20 meeting, protesters are preparing to meet on St Andrews beach to demand that the G20 do more to alleviate poverty and cut emissions.

About a dozen students began to gather in the town centre yesterday, carrying banners with slogans including "Nature doesn't do bail-outs" and "IMF is the problem not the solution".

Amir Gholami, 33, from Luxembourg, said: "I think the people at the G20 are representative of a system that is part of the problem, not the solution."

Dr Richard Dixon, director of WWF Scotland, said: "We need firm action, not just proposals."

Mr Darling said he had received a mixed response from his fellow finance ministers over the choice of St Andrews for the summit.

"When I told them that we would be going to St Andrews, the golfers among them thought it would be great. The others looked at me and said: 'Won't it be cold?'"

He added: "I've always been keen to encourage international meetings in Scotland, and it is a chance to showcase the country. It's good that we don't have all these meetings in London."