After committing to the formation of a climate change fund for the poor countries at the 2007 Bali conference, the European Union is finding itself in a fix over how to raise the billions needed to assist the poor countries acquire the new cleaner technology from the developed nations.

In a meeting held at Brussels, the EU nations failed to build consensus over the amount of funds they were willing to commit for the promised climate change fund. Questions like which nations contributes how much, how would this affect the already recession-hit economies and will the United States and advanced developing countries respond in kind, remained unanswered meaning that there was no agreement reached.

The issues which form the core of this problem are: No indication from advanced developing countries to commit to mandatory emissions reduction and thus unwillingness from the developed nations (and their citizens) to unilaterally commit to stricter emission reductions; secondly, during this phase of economic recession there is huge shortage of credit around the world and governments are reluctant to invest in other countries or international projects and lastly, differences over the principle of ‘polluter pays’.

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With a tank of fuel for the average family car costing close to $150, high fuel prices have effectively acted as one very large carbon tax - and effective they have been. Britons have reduced fuel consumption by 20% during the past year, driving less, and driving more slowly at the same time. Sales of fuel efficient vehicles are at an all time high.

But unfortunately this is not politically sustainable. The aforementioned protest is hurting the government’s popularity badly as disposable incomes are eroded by fuel bills. Having previously made broad promises to reduce Britain’s CO2 output by up to 80% by 2050 in a bid to profess world leadership on Climate Change, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been carefully avoiding any kind of statement on environmental targets during previous months. Meanwhile Britain is set to miss most of it’s legally binding and far less ambitious climate change objectives anyway.

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