Brown opens pocketbook for Copenhagen

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged more than $13 billion over three years toward an environmental fund for developing countries.

Brown met with delegates from the heads of state of the members of the British Commonwealth. The leaders expressed the need to establish a fund to help developing countries adapt to shifting energy strategies.

The 53 member states of the Commonwealth said such a fund was a necessary part of a comprehensive climate-change policy envisioned for an international climate summit scheduled to begin Dec. 7 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

"We have got to provide some money to help that," said Brown. "Britain will do so, the rest of Europe will do so and I believe America will do so as well."

The fund could end what appears to be a deadlock facing the Copenhagen climate-change summit, Brown said.

"I think it is very important that the deadlock is broken," said the prime minister. "That means that the poorer countries must have an understanding that the richer countries will help them adapt to climate change and make the necessary adjustments in their economies."

The 53 nations in the commonwealth, mostly former British colonies, include countries like the Maldives where global warming threatens to submerge the countries within decades.