So, where were we on this “paying for climate change” business? Ah, yes. African nations had said that they would need $67 billion a year to combat the effects of climate change, and then the United Nations said that developing nations, as an aggregate, will need at least $500 billion to fight climate change. All caught up? Good. Today, the European Union threw its hat into the debate, and announced it is willing to spend $22 billion (15 billion in Euros) a year by 2020 to developing nations. Says Reuters,

[EU Environment Commissioner Stavros] Dimas’ team of experts estimates the developing world will face costs of around 100 billion euros a year by 2020 to cut emissions from industry and to help deal with droughts and crop failures worsened by climate change. Taxes on global shipping, aviation and industry could help, leaving a gap of 22-55 billion euros to be filled from the public purse. The EU could contribute 2-15 billion euros of that, the Commission said.

Environmental advocates believe this number to be too low, and that the EU is trying to basically pay $22 billion lip service to the idea of fighting global warming. I guess I’m torn on the issue–$22 billion is a lot of money, but clearly not enough if it’s going to cost $500 billion a year. So, is this a good start? Something that needs to be implemented, and then built upon? Or is it really, pardon the expression, pissing in the wind? It does seem like a drop in the bucket, yes, but a commitment is better than nothing, and maybe at least will bring some countries to the table in climate change negotiations that otherwise would be skeptical of any agreement being reached. So I’ll be optimistic on this one. Beats the alternative.

photo credit: aussiegall’s flickr photostream/Creative Commons