* Poor nations need 100 bln euros per yr by 2020 - EU

* EU could give 2-15 bln euros a yr by 2020 in climate deal

* EU could fund up to 2.1 bln euros in 2010-12

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By Pete Harrison

BRUSSELS, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Europe could pay up to 15 billion euros ($22 billion) a year to poor countries to break an impasse over who should foot the bill for tackling climate change, the European Union's executive arm said on Thursday.

Developing countries say industrialised nations should shoulder most of the cost of tackling a problem they caused in the first place -- creating a stumbling block in the run up to a climate meeting in Copenhagen in December.

Africa has warned it will veto any deal that is not generous enough.

"Now we must break the impasse in the Copenhagen negotiations," said EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas. "It is industrialised nations which must lead the way."

Dimas' experts estimate the developing world will face costs of around 100 billion euros a year by 2020 to cut emissions from industry and to help deal with droughts and crop failures worsened by climate change.

"Clearly, developing countries will need financial assistance to take the ambitious action needed," he said.

Taxes on global shipping, aviation and industry could help, leaving a gap of 22-55 billion euros to be filled from the public purse. The EU could contribute 2-15 billion euros of that if its 27 member countries agree, the Commission said.

But environmentalists said the figure was too low.

"The EU is trying to get away with leaving a tip rather than paying its share of the bill to protect the planet's climate," Greenpeace campaigner Joris den Blanken said.

DELICATE BALANCE

"This figure is clearly artificially low," said Finnish Green politician Satu Hassi. "The proposals published by the Commission could jeopardise the negotiations."

Dimas said he was paying careful attention to the EU's poorer states, some of whom argue they have citizens just as poor as in the developing world.

Romania's GDP per capita, for example, is roughly the same as Beijing's.

"Of course there are voices in the EU saying we should do more, but there are also voices saying this is too much money at a time of economic crisis," he said.

The United States might pay the equivalent of 13.3 billion euros a year, according to the same criteria, and Japan up to 4.5 billion, EU calculations show.

The Commission had previously indicated the EU might pay as much as 24 billion euros, but retracted the number after slashing billions off its budget for paying for emissions cuts in poor countries.

Local businesses should finance their own energy-saving measures because such investments can ultimately pay for themselves, it argued in a recent internal policy document.

Oxfam International warned that much of the climate funding would simply be drained from existing pledges of overseas aid.

"This would rob tomorrow's hospitals and schools in developing countries to pay for them to tackle climate change today," said Oxfam campaigner Elise Ford.

But Dimas rejected the charge. "This will not come at the expense of official development assistance," he said. (Editing by Dale Hudson and Keiron Henderson)

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