European Union efforts to agree a stance for global climate talks ran into trouble today because of a rift between eastern and western member states over money, Reuters reported. EU leaders hoped to agree at a two-day summit on a negotiating mandate for the talks in Copenhagen in December to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations scheme for battling climate change which expires in 2012. Success in Copenhagen is likely to hinge on money. Developing nations say they will not sign up to tackling climate change unless they get enough funding from rich nations which caused the problem by fuelling their industries with oil, gas and coal and polluting the atmosphere. Europe"s richer nations have accepted the demand, and EU leaders are preparing to endorse an estimate that developing nations will need about 100 billion euros ($147.4 billion) a year by 2020 to confront climate problems. Such money might be used to curb emissions from their dirtier industries, to develop drought-resistant crops or to find new sources of water as old ones dry up. But nine east European countries in the EU oppose paying too much, saying there is not much difference between the economic output of Romania, for example, and that of Beijing. Britain, Germany and the Netherlands resent some countries getting special treatment.
