as the honourable member rightly points out climate financing for developing countries is an essential element of the negotiations in copenhagen and it will be key to reaching an agreement
to start with i would like to point out again that at the october european council we stressed the importance of fast-start financing in order to initiate immediate actions and to prepare for collective and efficient action in the medium and longer term with a special emphasis on these developed countries
at the december council a few days ago the eu and its member states expressed their readiness to allocate eur two point four billion a year for the years twenty ten twenty twelve to help developing countries in their fight against climate change
with this commitment i think we did send a very strong message to the negotiators at their ongoing conference and strengthened our credibility
the european council furthermore recognised the need for a significant increase in public and private financial flows up to twenty twenty
the current financial architecture needs to be revised and where necessary reformed in order to ensure its capacity to meet the challenge
as you have pointed out in your question the october european council has endorsed the commission estimate that a total net incremented cost of adaptation and mitigation in developing countries could amount to around eur one hundred billion per year by twenty twenty to be met through a combination of developing countries own efforts the international carbon market and international public finance and this is what the commission has estimated the need to be
it is not an offer or a bid from the eu
there is also a wide range of other estimates from other sources but it is the commission estimate that the council has endorsed and believes to be the best assessment
the overall level of international public support required is estimated to lie in the range of eur twenty-two billion to eur fifty billion per year to twenty twenty
the eu and its member states are ready to take a fair share of that amount but all countries except the poorest ones should contribute to international public financing through a comprehensive distribution key based on emission levels and gdp
and as the european council stressed in october the copenhagen agreement needs to include provisions on the objective that global warming should not exceed two c ambitious emission reduction commitments by developed countries adaptation technology and a deal on financing
