Britain and France are proposing to back anti-climate change action with US$30 billion via an environmental fund that will be spent during the years 2010, 2011 and 2012, France's President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday.

"Alongside British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, we are proposing US$10 billion a year each of the first three years after Copenhagen," Sarkozy told a press conference in Trinidad and Tobago, where he had flown to join the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

In June, Mexico had proposed a similar idea: US$10 billion to be administered by the World Bank to which all nations would pay in, but from which poorer nations that make significant carbon dioxide reductions would be able to withdraw most.

Friday was the first time that a French president has attended a CHOGM, a meeting held every two years for the Commonwealth, an organization of 53 member nations most of whom are former British Colonies. The United Nations' Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is also in Port of Spain to speak with CHOGM heads of state about climate change as is Denmark's Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.

During his press conference, Sarkozy said he was encouraged by the fact that during the last three days, both the United States and China had both published proposals for carbon dioxide reduction to be formally decided in Copenhagen, where 192-nations are set to meet to craft an agreement that will replace 1997's Kyoto Protocol.

"During the last three days things have really been moving forward," Sarkozy said. Until recent days nations had been unwilling to put a figure on how much they would reduce emissions and when.

This week China said it would cut emissions 40 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2020 and the United States said it would reduce its output by 17 percent using the same criteria.

Sarkozy said that he had met India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a "productive" breakfast during which the two leaders had discussed technology transfer and commitments to reduce carbon dioxide production.

"I have no doubt that he will put figures on the table," Sarkozy said of Singh. "Singh also told me that India will never produce more carbon dioxide than the average of all other nations and that India would never be an obstacle in climate change negotiations."

Sarkozy also said that France will propose the creation of a new United Nations body called the World Environment Organization whose main task would be to implement the agreement that emerges from the Copenhagen meeting. He also added that no nation would be obliged to choose between growth and carbon dioxide reduction, describing such an idea as "twentieth century thinking."

Speaking of India, he said: "I would never ask a nation of a billion people, many of whom are poor, to abstain from growth. No one is a position to choose between growth and the environment. The idea is to choose sustainable growth."

Sarkozy said he had also had a one-on-one meeting with South Africa's President Jacob Zuma and urged him to attend the Copenhagen meeting and to fully engage with the climate change process. The goal is for both developing and industrialized nations to commit to verifiable carbon reduction targets and for developed nations to commit to technology transfer and funding to make this possible, he added.

The French president also added that the world's most industrialized nations must do more because of their history of development.

"We all live on the same planet, but the United States, France, Europe have to recognize our historical role. We have polluted more because we have developed more."

The CHOGM has brought representatives of 51 governments to Port of Spain, the capital of Caribbean island nation Trinidad and Tobago. Two of its members, Fiji and Nauru, are currently suspended and ineligible to send official representatives. There are around 5,000 delegates at the conference, including representatives of commonwealth governments, youth organizations, businesses and non-government organizations.

(Xinhua News Agency November 28, 2009)