国际英语新闻：EU asked to financially help developing countries in climate change

  BRUSSELS, March 3  -- The United Nations' top climate change official, Yvo de Boer, on Monday asked the European Union (EU) to provide financial help to major developing economies in order to reach a global deal on climate change.

    De Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, addressed an EU environment ministers' meeting in Brussels.

    "My message today is being: build on the leadership that Europe has shown so far, think about the kind of financial architecture that is going to be needed in order to come to a Copenhagen agreement that will be ratifiable to major economies of the world," de Boer told reporters after the meeting.

    Countries of the world agreed at a UN climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007 that a global deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol shall be sealed at the Copenhagen conference in December 2009.

    De Boer said rich countries and developing ones are not likely to make the same commitments to the fight against climate change given the nature of language agreed in Bali.

    "I don't believe it will be possible to arrive at a similar approach for industrialized countries on the one hand and major developing countries on the other."

    He said the engagement of major developing countries, such as China, India and Brazil, is crucial to an agreement in Copenhagen.

    Failure to get major developing countries on board was one of the reasons why the United States has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, he said.

    But he saw "significant movement" in U.S. position recently. "The United States is making advances. The United States is showing flexibility. The United States is trying to find ways engaging both Europe and the major developing countries."

    He also saw interesting developments in Europe in efforts to create a financial architecture to engage developing countries.

    A debate has started in Germany on auctioning greenhouse gas emission rights, he said. There are proposals that part of the proceeds from the auctioning can be used as incentives to stimulate policy engagement of developing countries.

    "The question of course remains -- not only for the United States, but also for Europe -- what sort of counter-offer are you going to need from major developing countries, like China, India and Brazil, to make it economically and politically viable for the U.S. and other industrialized nations to make commitments as well?" de Boer said.