U.S. will pay into climate fund, but not reparations: Todd Stern

U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern arrives to give a news conference after attending a private meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate in Cuernavaca, in Mexico's state of Morelo, June 23, 2009.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) The United States will contribute to a fund to help poor countries deal with the effects of climate change, but Washington does not see the need to make "reparations" for its centuries of carbon pollution, a high-ranking Obama administration official said on Wednesday.

"We absolutely recognize our historic role in putting emissions in the atmosphere, up there, but the sense of guilt or culpability or reparations, I just categorically reject that," said Todd Stern, a lead U.S. negotiator to the climate talks.