EU confronts its commitment to curb global warming
Pastor Dale Morgan
EU confronts its commitment to curb global warming*
By Jeff Mason
Reuters
Tuesday, February 20, 2007; 5:23 AM
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union states debated how far they are
willing to go to fight climate change on Tuesday as the 27-nation bloc
forms what could become the world's most ambitious strategy to curb
global warming.
A draft statement to be agreed at a meeting of EU environment ministers,
obtained by Reuters, endorses a plan to cut EU greenhouse gas emissions
by at least 20 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
It also says the bloc would be willing to reduce its emissions by 30
percent by 2020 if other industrialized nations made similar cuts and
"economically more advanced" developing countries contributed too.
But officials said Hungary and Poland, which joined the EU in 2004,
opposed making the 20 or 30 percent targets mandatory.
They will face pressure to back the EU line, which is likely to form the
basis of the bloc's negotiating position for a global agreement to cut
emissions after 2012, when the first period covered by the Kyoto
Protocol on climate change ends.
"We have to push (them) to remember that they are in the European Union,
and they have to accept also that our tradition is to fight against
climate change," Italian Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio
told reporters.
"At the minimum they have to accept the cut of 20 percent -- at the
minimum," he said.
Finland has also voiced opposition to a unilateral EU target, while
Sweden and Denmark feel the bloc should commit to a 30 percent reduction
from the start.
Some states also wanted to discuss using a different base year than 1990
for calculating the emissions cuts.
DIFFERENT APPROACH
Germany, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, will try to smooth
differences between ministers to get unanimous support for its climate
change strategy ahead of a summit of the bloc's top leaders in March.
The draft says EU states would commit to a 30 percent target "provided
that other developed countries commit themselves to comparable emissions
reductions and economically more advanced developing countries
adequately contribute according to their responsibilities and respective
capabilities."
The statement said a "differentiated approach" would be needed when
distributing the requirements to fulfil the EU's target among the 27
states. It called on the Commission to analyze criteria for how the
targets would be divided.
"A differentiated approach to the contributions of the member states is
needed reflecting fairness and taking into account national
circumstances and the base years of the first commitment period of the
Kyoto Protocol," the draft said.
The 15 "old" EU states that were members before the bloc expanded to 25
nations in 2004 and 27 countries in 2007 have a collective target to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent by 2012 compared to 1990
levels.
That overall goal is split up among the 15 states in a burden-sharing
agreement, with some having to reduce emissions more than others.