EU backs deep cuts in greenhouse gases
Pastor Dale Morgan
Wednesday February 21, 4:33 AM
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EU backs deep cuts in greenhouse gases
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EU environment ministers backed plans for deep cuts in greenhouse gases
of as much as 30 percent, but environmentalists doubted Europe's
commitment to fighting climate change.
The ministers, meeting in Brussels, agreed to set a target to slash
carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels on
condition that other developed countries do the same, according to
official conclusions.
In the absence of an international target, the EU would independently
cut its emissions 20 percent by 2020.
"I think that today we reached a landmark decision that will create
important momentum towards a global agreement to prevent climate change
from reaching dangerous levels," EU Environment Commissioner Stavros
Dimas told journalists
"We agreed on a target, on a commitment, for negotiating with other
developed countries for a reduction of 30 percent of the greenhouse
gases by 2020," he added.
The commitment will make up the backbone of the European Union's
strategy for combatting climate change after 2012, when existing
emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol expire.
Under the protocol developed countries are currently supposed to reduce
their emissions by five percent by 2012 from 1990 levels, while the EU
has a higher target of eight percent.
The proposed cuts are now to go before EU leaders for approval at a
March 8-9 summit in Brussels.
Measures to combat climate change have climbed high on the EU political
agenda in recent months after a string of studies came to alarming
findings about the impact of higher global temperatures.
Earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
-- the UN's top scientific authority on global warming -- issued its
starkest warning yet.
It said that fossil fuel pollution would raise temperatures this
century, worsen floods, droughts and hurricanes, melt polar ice and
damage the climate system for a thousand years to come.
The European Commission wants Europe to play a key role in international
negotiations due to start in 2008 to set the next round of emissions
targets after the Kyoto objectives run out in 2012.
"The EU has demonstrated its seriousness by committing to an emissions
cut of at least 20 percent even before negotiations start," Dimas said.
However, environmentalists said that conditioning the more ambitious
target on other countries doing the same raised questions about the EU's
leadership in combatting climate change.
"We happily welcome the 30 percent emission cut proposed for the EU and
for developed countries for 2020," said Greenpeace climate campaigner
Mahi Sideridou.
"Ministers have listened to the science and made a leap forward in
addressing the climate crisis.
"But to then suggest a meagre 20 percent unilateral EU emissions cut,
while admitting this is inadequate and that a 30 percent cut will be
necessary, is a bizarre discrepancy," Sideridou added.
Friends of the Earth Europe climate and energy expert Jan Kowalzig said
the agreement lacked ambition, urging instead a commitment to a cut of
30 percent independent of what other countries did.
"In public actions across Europe, people are calling for a real
commitment to fight climate change," he said. "The EU should
unilaterally set itself a target of reducing domestic emissions by at
least 30 percent compared to 1990 levels."
The ministers' agreement also left Greens in the European Parliament
seeing red.
"Adopting a 'we'll jump if the others do too' approach to post-Kyoto
reductions amounts to an abdication by the EU of its self-ascribed
leadership on climate change," said Luxembourg MEP and Greens spokesman
for energy issues Claude Turmes.