Enlarge imageBy Toni Vorobyova and Anna Willard
ST ANDREWS, Scotland (Reuters) - Chancellor Alistair Darling urged his G20 counterparts on Saturday to work towards a $100 billion (60 billion pound) deal on tackling climate change as developing nations held firm they did not want to talk about it.
Darling is hosting the third meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers this year in St Andrews, Scotland, to discuss the progress of the global economy and come up with a framework to ensure future crises did not happen.
Britain is also determined to push forward on an ambitious target to meet the costs of climate change by 2020 ahead of a major environmental summit in Copenhagen next month.
"I think it really is imperative that when we reach the end of the day that we have shown that we have made some real progress," Darling said at the start of talks on Saturday.
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"If there isn't an agreement on finance ... then the Copenhagen agreement is going to be much, much more difficult."
But there appeared to be little chance of any breakthrough with many emerging countries even questioning whether it should be a topic of discussion at the G20, just as they did at a London meeting in September.
"The issue is whether we talk about it or not. Britain is quite motivated on this subject but there are some quite strong objections. The emerging market countries say it should not be discussed for procedural reasons, that the G20 is not the right forum," a French official said.
Another delegation source said the Europeans, notably Britain and EU presidency Sweden, were pushing hard for language on climate change to reach the end of meeting communique, but "are hitting a BRIC wall," referring to the group of four leading developing nations -- Brazil, Russia, India and China.
A 175-nation U.N. meeting in Barcelona also ended on Friday with little progress towards a global deal on climate change but narrowed options on helping the poor to adapt to climate change, sharing technology and cutting emissions from deforestation.
The meeting exposed a continuing rich-poor split on sharing the burden of curbs on greenhouse gas emissions in a drive to avert droughts, wildfires, species extinctions and rising seas.
About 40 world leaders plan to go to Copenhagen next month to improve the chances of clinching a U.N. climate deal, the United Nations said.
Darling has admitted that the chances of getting a figure agreed on the cost of climate change is unlikely but said that some advance has to be made to send the right signal.
"There will be quarrelling on climate -- we did not manage to agree on anything. But something has to be included in the communique otherwise there will be a scandal. Britain is very keen," a Russian delegate told Reuters.
Finance ministers and central bankers are also expected to maintain their pledge to keep emergency economic support packages in place for now and come up with a new framework to ensure closer policy coordination and rebalance the global economy.
"It's very important we get that framework for future growth, that we don't simply accept there is no alternative but a decade of austerity, of low growth and unemployment but instead we raise our sights, raise our ambition,." Darling said.
The head of the International Monetary Fund's policy-steering committee, Egyptian Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali, told Reuters on Saturday he did not expect major breakthroughs at the summit.
"The climate issue is on the table, though it was not discussed yesterday night. But I don't think anyone expects a major breakthrough. This is not a breakthrough meeting," he said.
(Writing by Sumeet Desai; editing by Patrick Graham)
