Bosom Buddies

“The Prime Minister and French President put on a public show of unity for the second day running at an EU summit in Brussels. They linked the two issues of the moment by proposing that bankers might foot the bill for combating climate change. They called on the International Monetary Fund to consider the use of a tax on financial transactions, and an aviation and shipping fuel tax to fund longer-term climate measures. Mr Brown’s persistence paid off when the Brussels summit agreed to raise the amount of money the EU will contribute to an £18bn three-year global fund to help developing nations reduce the rise in their carbon emissions and switch to low carbon industries. The size of the ‘fast start’ fund is a key issue in the Copenhagen talks.”