UK urges divided G20 to reach climate finance deal

By Toni Vorobyova and Anna Willard

ST ANDREWS (Reuters) - British finance minister Alistair Darling urged his G20 counterparts on Saturday to work toward a $100 billion deal on tackling climate change as developing nations held firm they did not want to talk about it.

Darling is hosting the third meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers this year in St Andrews, Scotland, to discuss the progress of the global economy and come up with a framework to ensure future crises did not happen.

Britain is also determined to push forward on an ambitious target to meet the costs of climate change by 2020 ahead of a major environmental summit in Copenhagen next month.

"I think it really is imperative that when we reach the end of the day that we have shown that we have made some real progress," Darling said at the start of talks on Saturday.

"If there isn't an agreement on finance ... then the Copenhagen agreement is going to be much, much more difficult."

But there appeared to be little chance of any breakthrough with many emerging countries even questioning whether it should be a topic of discussion at the G20, just as they did at a London meeting in September.

"The issue is whether we talk about it or not. Britain is quite motivated on this subject but there are some quite strong objections. The emerging market countries say it should not be discussed for procedural reasons, that the G20 is not the right forum," a French official said.

Another delegation source said the Europeans, notably Britain and EU presidency Sweden, were pushing hard for language on climate change to reach the end of meeting communique, but "are hitting a BRIC wall", referring to the group of four leading developing nations -- Brazil, Russia, India and China.