Darling urges climate deal at G20 summit

St Andrews in Scotland is hosting finance ministers from the world’s leading rich and developing countries amid growing signs of a global recovery.

But Britain’s Alistair Darling believes it would be premature to declare victory and that emergency economic support measures should stay in place.

Ahead of the Copenhagen summit, he is also urging
a deal to meet the costs of climate change.

“It really is important though that we, as finance ministers, are engaged on this, because if there is not an agreement on finance, if there is not an agreement about contributions to make sure that we can deal with this problem, then the Copenhagen agreement is going to be much, much more difficult,” said Darling, Britain’s Finance Minister.

But there seems little chance of a breakthrough with many emerging countries questioning whether it should be a topic of discussion at the G20 at all.

Protesters are also having their say at the summit.
A small group demonstrating in the historic centre of St Andrews denounced the way in which the world economy is handled and what they see as a failure to tackle global warming head on.

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tags: Climate, G20