NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has agreed to formally associate itself with the climate accord struck in Copenhagen last year, one of the last major emitters to do so, the environment minister said in a statement on Tuesday.

"After careful consideration, India has agreed to such a listing," Jairam Ramesh told parliament, referring to India's decision to formally join the more than 100 countries that have chosen to associate themselves with the non-binding Accord.

"We believe that our decision to be listed reflects the role India played in giving shape to the Copenhagen Accord. This will strengthen our negotiating position on climate change."

India's decision leaves China, the world's top greenhouse gas emitter, as the only nation among the "BASIC" group of big developing countries to hold off from associating with the political agreement.

The step is likely to be a small boost for the troubled Accord, which many greens say was a bare-minimum outcome from a summit originally intended to agree on the shape of a broader, tougher legally binding pact to fight climate change.

The BASIC group of nations -- China, India, South Africa and Brazil -- joined the United States, EU and a small number of other countries at the end of the Copenhagen summit to agree on the Accord.

It was meant to be formally adopted by all nations at the conference but last-minute objections by a small number of countries meant the agreement was merely noted. In a compromise, it was decided nations wishing to associate themselves with it would be added to a list later on.

But BASIC nations, and particularly China, India and Brazil, feared a ringing endorsement of the Accord could detract from the 1992 U.N. Climate Convention, which says rich nations must lead action to slow global warming.

CONDITIONAL ENDORSEMENT

They have also made clear their view that the Accord should not become the basis of a new legally binding climate treaty and that the existing U.N. talks looking to agree on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol was the main way forward.

But progress has been slow on negotiations to extend the Kyoto Protocol, which binds about 40 rich nations to cut emissions by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

Poorer nations want negotiations to continue on two tracks -- one working on a successor to Kyoto from 2013 and the other looking at longer term actions to fight climate change by all nations, including the United States which never ratified Kyoto.

The United States, in a submission to the United Nations late last month, backed the Accord but said negotiating texts created in the U.N.'s long-term action track were not the basis of any future agreements, a view at odds with developing nations.

Washington also wanted "further formalization of the Accord" at a major U.N. climate meeting at the end of the year in Mexico.

Ramesh said Indian support for the Accord was conditional.

" ... the Accord is a political document. It is not a template for outcomes," he said, adding that the Accord could not be a separate, third track of negotiations supplanting existing U.N.-led talks that have already yielding complex negotiating texts that represent years of work.

"The Accord could have value if the areas of convergence reflected in the Accord are used to help the Parties reach agreed outcomes under the U.N. multilateral negotiations," he said.

The Copenhagen Accord sets a non-binding goal of limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times and a goal of $100 billion in aid from 2020.

It also lists steps by dozens of nations, including all the top greenhouse gas emitters, to either cut or curb the growth of their emissions by 2020.

India and China have publicly said they "supported" the deal and Indian officials have said previously there was a distinction between expressing support and explicitly becoming "associated".

Some countries have charged that China's and India's reluctance to associate with the Accord was merely a negotiating tactic to try to win more concessions from the United States. (By Matthias Williams; Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and David Fogarty)

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At the request of Ban ki-Moon, the United Nations Secretary General, President Bharrat Jagdeo will join his British, Ethiopian and Norwegian counterparts to mobilise US$100 billion in annual finance for developing countries’ efforts to combat climate change.

The establishment of the advisory group builds on the Copenhagen Accord, which was agreed by most of the world’s countries at December’s climate change conference in the Danish capital.

UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said that the group would take on “the task that I believe is the most important we face – combating climate change by ensuring that the poorest countries have the finance necessary to do so. “If we can resolve this problem then I believe many of the other challenges of climate change can also be solved.”

President Jagdeo and the three Prime Ministers will be joined by 16 global experts and leading policy-makers from the world’s major economies – including Larry Summers, the Director of President Obama’s National Economic Council; Lord Nicholas Stern, Author of the Stern Review on Climate Change; Caio Koch-Weser, the Vice-Chairman of Deutsche Bank, and George Soros, the venture capitalist. Senior Government representatives from China, India, Mexico, Australia, South Africa, Singapore, Mali, Brazil, Australia and France will also contribute.

A statement issued by the UN Secretary General’s Office said: “… the group will develop practical proposals on how to significantly scale-up long-term financing for mitigation and adaptation strategies in developing countries.” The group is expected to meet in 10 Downing Street in London within the coming month, and will conclude their work before the end of 2010.

Getting agreement on the need for both immediate “fast start” funding and a commitment to US$100 billion in annual climate finance for developing countries by 2020 have been two of Guyana’s key demands in international climate negotiations.

Guyana lobbied for these commitments to be included in the Port of Spain Climate Change Consensus which was agreed to by more than 50 Heads of Government at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad in November.

They were also two of the key factors that President Jagdeo insisted must be agreed at the Copenhagen climate change negotiations.

In an invited comment to the Government Information Agency (GINA), President Jagdeo said: “We need to face some blunt realities. One, the world is still not on the path to climate stability, and in that sense Copenhagen did not deliver what the world needs. Two, we stand no chance of getting climate stability unless we support the many developing countries which are working to combat climate change and move on to a low carbon trajectory. In that sense, Copenhagen made significant progress.

“The financing commitments in the Copenhagen Accord, both to fast track financing of a total of US$30 billion by 2012, and to raising US$100 billion annually by 2020, are vital building blocks for climate stability and saving the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

“We had argued for some time for commitments of this scale to be made, and we are delighted that our efforts and those of other countries, who worked alongside us, have led to what we now have in the Copenhagen Accord. But we need to see these commitments turned into reality – and that will require tough choices to be made across the world.

“I’m very happy to accept the Secretary General’s invitation to join his advisory group, and look forward to working with Prime Ministers Meles, Brown and Stoltenberg, as well as the other members of the group. I think we all share the view that this cannot be another talk shop, but instead the means through which we come up with practical solutions that can be quickly implemented in a way that re-inforces both the UNFCCC process and the good work being done by progressive countries across the developing world.” (By KNews)

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union executive is tempering its hopes of securing a legally binding climate deal in talks this year culminating in Cancun, Mexico, focusing instead on a 2011 summit in South Africa, a source said.

"The realistic approach is to aim for deliverables in the Bonn and Cancun meetings this year, and then to aim for a legally binding agreement in South Africa," the European Commission source said on condition of anonymity.

"But we should not give up hope of it being done earlier," the source added.

EU climate negotiators are struggling to find direction after Copenhagen talks in December ended in a weak accord.

Hopes of a strong global deal this year have faded since doubts emerged in January about the progress of climate legislation in the United States -- the world's number two emitter.

U.N. climate chief Yvo De Boer says it will be "very difficult" to agree a binding treaty in 2010.

European Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard is expected to lay out her hopes and strategy for climate talks next Tuesday, building on the Copenhagen Accord.

Europe's international standing in climate talks is being harmed by its failure to fulfill aid pledges, a leaked EU document warns.

"There is a risk of conflict with new financial commitments the EU has taken in the framework of the Copenhagen accord," warns the paper, seen by Reuters on Friday.

The EU has pledged to channel 7.3 billion euros ($9.92 billion) in "climate aid" to poor countries over three years to help them cut emissions from industry and tackle climate impacts on crops.

But the accord failed to agree concrete mechanisms for delivering the aid and poor countries worry it will never emerge.

"We need developing nations on our side and are looking to the EU for leadership," said British liberal politician Chris Davies. "There is a lot of cynicism about EU funding offers. This is a chance to prove our words have meaning."

"We need unity in the EU," Davies added. "Connie Hedegaard needs to establish her authority as the EU's lead voice on this."

(Reporting by Pete Harrison; Editing by Anthony Barker)

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's development chief may be forced to name and shame France, Germany and Italy for not living up to their aid commitments, contributing to a roughly $17 billion funding gap this year.

Andris Piebalgs warned in January he would clearly identify EU countries that failed to meet their aid commitments.

"In 2010, the EU aid disbursements are likely to further grow to approximately 54-55 billion euros ($74-75 billion)," a leaked EU document seen by Reuters shows. "Many member states will most probably not reach their... aid targets. A gap of 12-13 billion euros remains."

The paper did not name France, Germany or Italy, but an OECD report last month said they were among the EU's worst performers.

The paper also warned the shortfall threatens the EU's standing in climate talks, which this year aim to build on the weak accord reached in Copenhagen in December.

"There is a risk of conflict with new financial commitments the EU has taken in the framework of the Copenhagen accord," warns the paper.

The EU has pledged to urgently channel 7.3 billion euros in "climate aid" to poor countries over three years to help them cut emissions from industry and tackle climate impacts on crops.

That would plug a gap until a global climate deal is struck for the years after 2013.

The paper on overseas aid praises five countries -- Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands -- for overachieving, while Britain and Spain are named as key players to help make up the shortfall.

Anti-poverty group Oxfam said the EU needed a radical new plan that made aid pledges legally binding and set timetables.

"These targets are not just numbers," said Oxfam's Elise Ford. "This money is about mothers and babies in poor countries getting health care, about children going to school."

Under the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, the European Union has committed to handing over 0.7 percent of gross national income (GNI) for development assistance.

A U.N. conference in New York in September will assess progress in 2010, by which time EU countries are supposed to have reached an interim target of 0.56 percent of GNI. But they are falling short at around 0.46 percent.

(Reporting by Pete Harrison; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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