The EU failed to reach agreement to help developing countries reduce emissions

Finance ministers of the EU (Ecofin) on Tuesday failed to agree on financial assistance needed by developing countries to cut emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and thus to address the impacts of climate change.
"It's a disappointing result," he acknowledged at a news conference Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg, whose country chairs the EU this semester.
The Twenty-seven were unable to reach agreement on the needs of non-industrialized nations to curb emissions and on how much each Member State should provide financial assistance from the EU to those countries.
Poland's opposition, meanwhile, prevented adoption of any conclusions that had already withdrawn all the key figures, so the issue will go to European leaders, meeting in Brussels next week.
'Lack of commitment'

According to the Swedish presidency of the EU shift the problem is "lack of commitment" of the EU countries themselves.
The European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia, conceded that, given what happened today and what is happening internationally, "will be difficult" to reach agreement on a UN summit on climate change , held in December in Copenhagen.

Still, Almunia said he was hopeful and said that Tuesday's meeting has ended without a text of conclusions "does not mean that Europe will continue to lead the efforts in search of agreement" to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

Until this morning, the European ministers hoped to agree on at least three general figures on funding. First, according to draft conclusions that have been discussing, they recognized that developing countries need between 5,000 and 7,000 million per year to tackle climate change and reducing emissions in the period 2010-2012.

The text also noted that mitigation and adaptation to global warming will cost around 100,000 million per year from 2020, of which between 22,000 and 50,000 million would come from international public funding.

However, strong opposition from several countries, led by Poland, now forced to withdraw all the figures except the most comprehensive document (100,000 million), yet they failed to check the support of member countries.