The eurozone is in the middle of an economic crisis, with millions of taxpayers facing severe austerity measures. But that does not bother the EU´s global warming queen, climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard and the Danish EU Presidency. They have invited the "allies" from the Alliance of Small Island States and the Least Developed Countries to hear how many billions of EU tax payers´ money the EU global warming establishment intends to give to the Green Climate Fund, agreed in Cancun and Durban.
The "allies", together with the likes of Oxfam, are of course doing their best in order to scare the purse keepers into action, but whether the EU finance ministers will agree to this senseless transfer of billions to e.g. all kinds of undemocratic and unstable governments is another matter:
EU nations have yet to come up with a plan on how to fill a multi-billion euro fund to help tackle climate change, even as the region's executive body hosts talks with countries likely to bear the brunt of extreme weather.
The European Union recommitted to providing 7.2 billion euros ($9.4 billion) for the fund over 2010-12, according to draft conclusions seen by Reuters ahead of a meeting of EU finance ministers next week.
But after that, how much cash will flow is unclear as the text, drafted against the backdrop of acute economic crisis in the euro zone, states the need to "scale up climate finance from 2013 to 2020", but does not specify how.
The Green Climate Fund aims to channel up to $100 billion globally per year by 2020 to help developing countries deal with the impact of climate change.
Its design was agreed at international climate talks in Durban last year.
Europe's Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard is fighting to build on the fragile international agreement in Durban.
On Monday and Tuesday, together with the Danish EU presidency, she is holding informal discussions in Brussels with members of what some call the "coalition of ambition", ahead of U.N. talks in Bonn later this month.
The coalition is a union of the EU, the Alliance of Small Island States and the Least Developed Countries. At the U.N. talks in Durban, it played a lead role in forging agreement on keeping alive the Kyoto process, the only global framework on addressing global warming.
Hedegaard told reporters the talks in Brussels were "informally testing different ideas".
"We are all in agreement: no back-tracking, no less ambition. What binds us is this idea we will push for ambition."
Representing the low-lying Marshall Islands, Tony deBrum, minister in assistance to the president, said the EU's leadership had thrown "a life-line" to parts of the world most vulnerable to rising sea levels.
"For us, this is a matter of the survival of a people," he said. "A culture, a language, a way of life."
'STUBBORN'
Non-governmental organisation Oxfam said "intransigence" from some EU member states was putting the coalition at risk as they are arguing against firm commitments to finance after 2012.
"At a critical moment in the fight against climate change, Europe looks to be sitting back rather than stepping up," Lies Craeynest, Oxfam's EU climate change expert, said.
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