Asian and European nations expressed a growing interest Tuesday in carbon markets to raise funds for fighting global warming.
A 48-nation summit also called for legally binding decisions at a major conference on climate change later this year in Cancun, Mexico — a step forward from the nonbinding political declaration that emerged from the last climate conference in Copenhagen in December.
At the end of the two-day Asia-European Union meeting, or ASEM, the leaders “noted the rising interest among ASEM partners for developing carbon markets” that could scale up financing and investment in green energy.
Developed countries agreed at Copenhagen to channel $30 billion to poor countries over three years up to 2012, in what they called fast-track funds to get them started in preparing for climate changes that could deeply affect agriculture, water supplies and coastal security from rising sea levels.
They also pledged $100 billion a year from 2020, but have not said how that money will be raised from public treasuries and private capital.
The ASEM meeting, which included both donors and recipients of climate funds, reaffirmed those objectives.
“We agreed on the importance of fast-start financing, and mobilizing new and additional financial resources to address the needs of developing countries,” EU President Herman van Rompuy said at ASEM’s closing session.
Financial questions also were being discussed this week at a U.N. climate conference in Tianjin, China, the final round of negotiations before the Nov. 29-Dec. 10 Cancun meeting.
Europe has the world’s most sophisticated system of emissions trading, in which countries and industries can buy credits to help meet their obligations to reduce greenhouse gases.
Countries also can earn credits by investing in carbon-saving projects in developing countries, a practice widely exploited in China and India which garnered huge investments in renewable energy.
Among Asian countries at the ASEM conference, New Zealand has adopted a cap-and-trade system based on Europe’s, while Australia scrapped a similar plan due to political opposition. A regional system operates in several U.S. states, but hopes by President Barack Obama’s administration to launch a nationwide trading regime have stalled in Congress.
A concluding statement said the ASEM leaders sought a “comprehensive legally binding outcome” of the Cancun meeting — a goal most officials involved in climate talks have said is unlikely this year.
Climate talks are seeking an agreement to succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, whose main provisions for reducing carbon emissions expire in 2012. Climate officials now hope a full accord could be wrapped up in 2011.
