How the European Union bribed the group of 48 Least Developed Countries to support the Warsaw COP 19 deal

UK Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey on the EU
bribes to the group of 48 Least Developed Countries:
"UK and EU achieved our aims, building alliances with our friends across the world"
 

The European Union has been celebrating the empty deal reached at the UN global warming "summit" COP 19 in Warsaw. UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey was cheerleading the European "success":

 "All nations have now agreed to start their homework to prepare for a global climate change deal in 2015. The world now has a work programme, with timetables. While the long negotiations in Poland showed there are many tough talks ahead of us, the determined diplomacy of the UK and EU achieved our aims, building alliances with our friends across the world."

(Wow, "a work programme, with timetables"!)

The reality behind this European "success story" is this: The European Union as a matter of fact bribed the group of 48 Least Developed Countries, which had come to the conference with demands for unlimited "loss and damage" claims.

When the group of 48 realized that their demands would be ignored, they settled for the next best thing - new promises of funding from their traditional paymasters in the European Union:

The European Union and its Member States – which together are the biggest donor of Official Development Assistance and the leading provider of climate finance to developing countries - showed in Warsaw that they are delivering on climate finance and will continue to do so in the future.

Last year the EU and a number of Member States announced voluntary contributions totalling around €5.5 billion, and a recent assessment shows they are on track to deliver this in 2013. In Warsaw the EU and several Member States announced new climate finance for 2014. The indicative contributions to developing countries are expected to be at least at the same level as in 2013. In particular, EU Member States have contributed well over half of a US $100 million addition to the Adaptation Fund requested by developing countries.

The European "trick" (Der Spiegel) worked - the group of 48 Least Developed Countries switched sides, making the empty deal in Warsaw possible. But how long will European taxpayers - struggling with low or no growth, high unemployment and constantly rising energy prices - be prepared accept this madness?

PS

This is what EU taxpayers can look forward to, unless Connie Hedegaard and her colleagues in Brussels are stopped:

At least 20% of the entire European Union budget for 2014-2020 will be spent on climate-related projects and policies, following the European Parliament's approval today of the 2014-2020 EU budget. The 20% commitment triples the current share and could yield as much as €180 billion in climate spending in all major EU policy areas over the seven-year period.
The EU’s development policy will contribute to achieving the 20% overall commitment, with an estimated €1.7bn for climate spending in developing countries in 2014-2015 alone. This is on top of climate finance from individual EU Member States. This budget marks a major step forward in transforming Europe into a clean and competitive low-carbon economy and helping developing countries adapt to the impacts of climate change.