Commonwealth leaders meeting in Trinidad have backed the proposals put forward by the UK and France for a global fund intended to build up to a total of $10 billion per year to help low income countries achieve carbon emission targets.
They unanimously agreed to seek a legally binding international agreement. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that India’s targets for carbon emission cuts would be ambitious.
The 53 member states of the Commonwealth serve more than 2 billion people. Their conference has been seen as a key test of attitudes across high and low income countries, which include a number of island states that face devastation from rising sea levels, as well as developing countries that have not in the past been willing to accept carbon emission reduction targets. The level of agreement surprised many observers, it was clearly helped by Anglo-French proposals for of a mechanism for providing funding support to help low income countries achieve such targets.
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