Climate money

The United States, Europe and other developed countries are prepared to kick in tens of billions of dollars to win support from poorer countries for a global climate treaty next year.

President Obama is headed to Copenhagen in the next week to declare U.S. support for the talks aimed at worldwide reductions in emissions of global-warming gases. But along with pledges of reduced U.S. reductions of greenhouse gases, President Obama may also carry promises of American financing demanded by underdeveloped countries.

Poorer nations want the richer countries to establish a fund for upfront financing to help them deal with the consequences of global climate changes, such as flooding or drought, in exchange for support for a climate treaty next year. The funds could be used to help countries switch to new crops, build coastal protections from rising water, preserve forests or combat diseases related to global warming.

Estimates of the fund vary considerably. U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer, called for rich countries to put "at least $10 billion a year on the table." The World Bank estimates costs of adapting to climate change at $75 billion to $100 billion a year for the next 40 years. That does not include the cost of reducing carbon emissions.

However, the upfront funding has support abroad and at home. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has offered $1.3 billion over three years with expectations that the rest of Europe will also contribute. Japan could provide $1 billion. Appropriations of $1 billion to $1.3 billion for climate aid are included in climate change legislation before Congress.

"Short-term finance would be used as an opportunity to get a political buy-in for the other elements of an agreement," Athena Ballesteros, a climate-finance expert at the Washington think tank World Resources Institute, told the Associated Press.

Funding pledges will be followed by talks next year on how to raise the revenue. Suggestions include a tax on airline flights, a world tax on carbon emissions and sharing in revenue to be raised by the grade in carbon emissions allowances.

Americans, along with residents of other developed nations, will be paying twice to curb global warming.