EU climate change deal to help poor countries

Last Updated: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:17:00 +1100

EU leaders will meet US president Barack Obama next week to attempt to get American support for a subsidy scheme likely to cost wealthy countries billions of dollars.

Europe correspondent, Philip Williams reports from London.

Britain's prime minister, Gordon Brown has hailed a decision by EU leaders on climate change as a breakthrough.

At a meeting in Brussels the European prime ministers and presidents agreed richer countries would have to subsidise poorer nations to the tune of 160 billion dollars a year by 2020.

Gordon Brown says an agreement is now more likely at Copenhagen as it commits wealthier countries to pay for the effects of climate change on developing nations.

However Greenpeace and other environmental groups have criticised the decision saying which the principal was welcome it was a missed opportunity because there was no commitment to specific figures.

Poorer European countries like Poland also had reservations about a scheme that they say would mean subsidising developing countries that were richer than them.