Une proposition à 100 milliards de dollars pour le climat [en]

"It is a credible number against which countries can develop their plans," Brown stated, presenting his manifesto for international climate negotiations to take place in Copenhagen in December (see EurActiv LinksDossier on 'The road to Copenhagen'). 

The manifesto calls on the world to acknowledge 2°C as the limit to global warming, arguing that global emissions must peak by 2020. 

The money would come "from a combination of the carbon market, new and additional sources of predictable finance and a limited amount of development aid," according to the prime minister. He stressed that although the figure is envisaged for 2020, some funds would have to be made available from 2013 onwards.

The UK supports a Norwegian proposal whereby countries would set aside some of their emissions permits to be auctioned at international level to generate climate funding. Aviation and maritime emissions should also be tapped into as a funding source, Brown stressed. 

A potentially more controversial proposal is to use Official Development Aid (ODA) to tackle climate change. The UK nevertheless advocates limiting the use of development aid for this purpose to 10%, acknowledging that this should not jeopardise the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Only the least-developed countries should be excluded from contributing to adaptation funding, but developing countries would receive more money than they put in, the manifesto reads.   

Moreover, as part of a fair deal between rich and poor countries, the manifesto says developed nations must agree to cut their emissions by at least 80% by 2050 to leave developing countries room to grow, Brown argued. But the larger developing countries will also have to cut their emissions "significantly" below current trajectories, eventually moving to absolute reductions, he argued.

Green groups and development organisations welcomed the UK proposals on financing for adaptation measures in the developing world.

"By becoming the first major leader to put a figure on how much money is needed, [Brown] has shown signs of leadership on climate change that have so far been sorely lacking. At last a G8 leader is talking about the right order of magnitude, three-digit numbers and billions instead of millions," said Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace UK.

But diverting development aid to climate change attracted less support. "Climate change is a problem caused by the rich world but borne overwhelmingly by the poor. It is simply wrong that any solution should involve plundering aid money - even if only 10% of it," said Tim Gore, Oxfam International's EU climate change expert.