Brazil, China urge more climate change funding from developed countries

Developed countries should speed up agreed climate change mitigation investments and technology development, said a joint statement from Brazil and China on Friday.

"We remain very concerned that funding provided by developed countries continues to fall short of the commitment of $100 billion per year," said the statement signed by Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Xi Jinping, referring to the 2009 COP15 climate action commitments.

Lula arrived in China, Brazil's top trading partner, on Tuesday to meet Xi and Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang.

The statement also announced the two countries will create a special subcommittee on climate change within the Sino-Brazilian High Level Commission for Consultation and Cooperation (COSBAN) to cooperate on policy and technical issues.

The call to developed countries also includes a promise to fight "green trade barriers" and to act together with developing countries in international forums.

Brazil is negotiating with China to create a bilateral green investment fund to finance and subsidize developing green and renewable energy in both countries. An announcement of some kind was expected during the trip, but did not happen due to lack of time for negotiations.

Another point in the declaration was an agreement to build an additional monitoring satellite to help monitor forests, and the promise to take collective action against illegal deforestation and international timber sales.

Reuters