PORT OF SPAIN, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of the Commonwealth countries voiced their support here on Saturday for the UN climate talks in Copenhagen, saying "an internationally legally binding agreement is essential" in combating global warming.
In a statement released after a three-day summit meeting of the heads of government of the 53-nation Commonwealth on Saturday, the leaders threw weight behind the negotiation process for a global climate change agreement in Copenhagen meeting next month and welcomed the initiative to start a 10-billion Copenhagen Launch Fund proposed by Britain and France.
While recognizing climate change as an "existing threat" for key commonwealth nations, the statement said that Commonwealth leaders believed that "an internationally legally binding agreement is essential."
The statement drew an immediate welcome from the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who flew into Port of Spain on Thursday to speak to a special session on climate change, less than a month before the Copenhagen meeting, which aims at reaching an agreement on furthering global fight against climate change.
"I am very encouraged by the shared desire for a successful outcome next month in Copenhagen," Ban said at a press conference where four other leaders -- Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Patrick Manning, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Kamalesh Sharma, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, also made their speeches.
The summit brought together 51 senior representatives from nations most of which were former British colonies. It also attracted leaders active in the climate change arena, including the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen whose country is to host the UN climate meeting.
The Commonwealth's Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma said the body's structure, linking large powerful states to smaller ones, had allowed the nations most vulnerable to climate change to make their voice heard.
The statement calls for 10 percent of the climate change funds, proposed to operate in next three years, to go to small island states which will bear the brunt of climate change problems due to rising sea levels. Many of the Commonwealth's members are small island nations.
Rasmussen, a special guest to the meeting, told media he was heading out of the meeting "fully convinced that an ambitious agreement can be reached in Copenhagen."
A total of 90 heads of state have confirmed they will attend the talks in the Danish capital next month.
Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo welcomed the fund as a good start, but warned that it remained short of completely solving the climate change problem, as reports by economists put the total cost of carbon output mitigation at 300 billion dollars by 2020, or around 1 percent of world's gross domestic product (GDP).
Besides, there are worries that the money to offset the cost of carbon output mitigation could not be disbursed quickly enough under the current frameworks.
The leaders also touched upon the situation in Afghanistan and the Commonwealth Games due to be held in Indian capital New Delhi next year during the three-day summit.
The 53-nation body represents around 2 billion people, although more than 1 billion are in just one member, India. Two nations are members but have not sent delegates -- Fiji, which has been suspended due to a coup, and Nauru, which has been suspended due to fee arrears.
