Green activists have strongly criticised heads of state and government for failing to put concrete sums on the table to help developing countries combat climate change at their meeting this month. As anticipated, European leaders postponed till June a decision on the EU's position for global climate talks, which are scheduled to conclude in Copenhagen in December.
Meeting in Brussels for this month's spring summit, heads of state and government even appeared to dilute the conclusions earlier drawn up by environment and finance ministers by omitting references to potential financing mechanisms. The summit conclusions merely state that further discussions were needed on such international mechanisms, and that leaders will determine "well in advance of the Copenhagen conference" the EU's stance on financial approaches, its specific contribution and "principles of burden sharing among Member States."
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the EU should make no commitment while other nations, notably the US and China, are not doing the same. Instead European leaders concentrated on measures to tackle the economic crisis, which provoked angry comments from green NGOs. Friends of the Earth in particular, said while the 27 member states spent most of their time discussing multi-billion euro responses to the financial crisis, it failed to commit a single cent to international efforts to deal with global warming.
The next EU summit is scheduled for 18-19 June, with the UN Climate Conference set to conclude in Copenhagen on 7-18 December.
