UK fails to pay global warming dues

Britain has failed to provide financial backing for a new UN fund to help the world's poorest countries cope with the devastating effects of global warming despite making Africa and climate change the twin themes of its G8 presidency, it was revealed last night.

Alone among major European nations, Britain has failed to contribute to a special pot of money for the least developed countries that the government agreed should be set up at an international summit in Bonn three and a half years ago.

Environmentalists said last night that the government's behaviour was "embarrassing", particularly given Labour's decision to link the problems of Africa and climate change during its year-long G8 presidency. Tony Blair has called global warming the biggest challenge facing mankind.

Under the 2001 agreement, rich nations agreed to "predictable and adequate levels of funding" for developing nations to help them adapt to climate change, diversify out of fossil fuels and to assist in technology transfer. From 2005, the rich nations making up the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development were supposed to set aside €450m (£308m) a year for the Global Environment Facility (GEF), with part of the fund set aside for the poorest nations. Less than 10% of the cash has actually been donated by rich countries this year.

The fund was given strong backing from the EU, which reaffirmed its political commitment to helping poor countries and pledged to pay its fair share of the cost. A paper prepared for the council meeting of the GEF in June shows that Germany has been the biggest European donor to the least developed countries fund with €15m, and that smaller sums have also been received from Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, France and the Netherlands. Canada has also contributed, bringing the total to $32.9m (£17m). The UK is not listed among the donors.

The paper shows that the UK has pledged £10m to a separate special climate change fund designed for all developing countries rather than simply the poorest nations, but that the money has yet to be handed over. A spokesman for the Department for International Development said the £10m would start to be paid next month, in three annual instalments of £3.3m. He added that Britain had yet to pledge any money for least developed countries because the government was yet to be satisfied of the "objectives and criteria" of the fund.

The findings were brought to light by Andrew Simms, the author of a new book on climate change, Ecological Debt, due to be published next week. He said last night: "Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have set Africa and global warming as the summit's key themes. Yet these documents reveal one of the government's most embarrassing oversights.

"The irony of our failure to pay is that for years, due to our high-consuming lifestyles, we have been pilfering from the natural resource accounts of the rest of the world. Across the developing world, the poorest people suffer from two crises: financial debt (which their governments are repaying) and ecological debt (which our governments aren't repaying)."