G-20 ministers to talk about climate change, recovery

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept its near-zero interest rate policy and maintained a trillion-dollar support of the ailing economy, adding that it had “continued to pick up” since September.

The St. Andrews meeting comes after a week of embarrassing economic news for host country Britain, which is still in recession.

It said Tuesday it was making available an extra 30 billion pounds (33 billion euros, US$49 billion) to support Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, which are now 84 percent and 43 percent state-owned respectively.

The Bank of England (BoE), like the European Central Bank, kept interest rates at record lows Thursday but the BoE said it would pump another 25 billion pounds (28 billion euros, US$41 billion) into the economy to help it out of its slump.

On the environment, climate change campaigners are hoping for progress ahead of Copenhagen.

G-20 sources said discussions in Scotland would focus on how cash from rich countries to help developing nations tackle climate change should be delivered.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, whose country is hosting the U.N. climate conference, is attending to monitor progress.

European Union leaders agreed last week that developing nations will need 100 billion euros (US$150 billion) annually by 2020 but failed to put a figure on Europe's own contribution.

The Pittsburgh summit also saw progress on bank regulatory reform issues, including deferred bonuses for bankers and making the payments subject to clawback in the event of poor performance.

But France has revived the issue in the run-up to St. Andrews, with an official saying it is “worried” by a lack of progress since then.

In particular, the U.S. “launched a consultation under the aegis of the Fed but without putting a figure on it,” a French official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

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