Family Life

12.14.09 | FL News Team

The U.S. isn't revealing what it's willing to pay poor countries over the long haul to stop polluting. That's the latest word from Bloomberg News as talks head to the final round at the United Nations' global climate summit in Copenhagen. Instead, President Obama's negotiators are reportedly wheeling and dealing over the nation's short-term funding for developing nations. The U.S. and European Union have offered to chip in ten-billion dollars a year through 2012 to help developing nations put clean technologies on a faster track.

 The thornier issue is how to help poor countries repair long-term damage from rising sea levels, droughts, melting glaciers and other disasters caused by rising temperatures. The UN is calling for contributions of 100-billion dollars a year from wealthy nations from 2010 through 2020. Negotiators from around the world have reached an impasse in Copenhagen and are ready to hand off matters to 100 world leaders. The leaders arrive on Friday for the summit's final day. Attendees will include China's premier and President Obama. The two men represent the world's top two greenhouse gas polluters.