Britain’s £1.5 billion for world’s poorest countries

The world’s poorest countries will get £1.5 billion pounds from Britain as its contribution to a “quick start” fund to help developing countries cope with climate change.The money will go into a three-year  quick start fund worth £6.5 billion pounds agreed by European Union (EU) leaders at a European Council meeting in Brussels today (Friday). The UK's promise, at £500m ($800m; 553m euros) a year was the highest.The money is meant to be used to avoid deforestation, water shortages and other consequences of climate change between 2010 and 2012, and reduce their own emissions."Britain's contribution is one that we are proud we are making, and that is $800million a year. That makes it possible for the poorest countries to come to the table knowing that they can mitigate carbon emissions and adapt to climate change." The prime minister said he and other EU leaders would do "everything in our power" to secure an ambitious deal at the UN summit in Copenhagen, which ends next week.He said: "I believe there is goodwill now, that there is a determination that things move forward. Obviously we are hoping that other countries respond to the generous offers that Europe has made but we look forward to a successful outcome."

The big question now though is whether poor countries themselves will think it is enough, even if the EU figures are matched by countries such as Japan and the US. Some of the poorer African countries, have made demands for a lot more money and sooner.Some campaign “Almost all of the money is likely to be simply a re-labelling of existing aid commitments," said Anne-Catherine Claude, of ActionAid. "Many EU members have a track record of repackaging or re-announcing existing aid commitments. This appears to be the case here too," she told the BBC. Bruno Tseliso Sekoli, chairman of the Least Developed Countries bloc, said that the money being pledged was not enough. "Any money that would flow from the developed to developing worlds would be welcome but these numbers are very, very low," he said.Meanwhile, the draft text of a possible final deal at the Copenhagen summit urges rich countries to raise their pledges on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Earlier, Brown released a joint statement with French President Nicolas Sarkozy committing Britain and France to work together for an ambitious deal in Copenhagen which would keep global warming to within two degrees Celsius.Brown said: "This is the time for more than words. It is the time for action, backed up by strong commitments. It is strong commitments that President Sarkozy and I are making here."

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children