THE EU will be going to December’s UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in a “leadership role” as a result of its council of environment ministers reaching agreement yesterday on a “strong and comprehensive” negotiating text.
Speaking after the talks concluded in Luxembourg, Minister for the Environment John Gormley said he was pleased that the EU’s position was based on the most up-to-date scientific evidence, which showed the problem was “probably even worse than we thought”.
The main outstanding issue, on which finance ministers failed to reach agreement on Tuesday, is the scale of international aid to assist developing countries combat climate change. This will go forward to an EU summit in Brussels next week for final determination.
Oxfam Ireland said it was “extremely disappointing” no deal had yet been reached on this issue, and it called on Taoiseach Brian Cowen and other EU leaders to “make sure that Europe shows how it will help poor countries to deal with climate destruction”.
The text agreed by environment ministers reaffirmed the EU’s commitment to reaching a “global, ambitious and comprehensive” climate agreement in Copenhagen that would be legally binding and subject to a “strong and effective compliance regime”.
This runs counter to the US position, even under President Obama, whose negotiating team has made it clear that all reduction targets should be merely voluntary and that this would also apply to major developing economies such as China and India.
Mr Gormley said the environment ministers’ meeting had finished unexpectedly early after the Swedish presidency brokered a compromise over surplus credits against greenhouse gas emissions held by central and eastern European member states.
These are known as assigned amount units (AAUs) or more colloquially as “hot air”, largely accumulated due to the collapse of Soviet-style economies, and there was a demand by Poland and other former Russian satellites that these should be carried over.
The compromise agreed by environment ministers was that AAUs would need to be “addressed appropriately” to ensure that the carbon market was not flooded, or even undermined, by a rush of “hot air” after the Kyoto Protocol’s first phase runs out in 2012.
"Ireland's position was that we couldn't afford to water it down any further, because it would weaken the EU position," Mr Gormley told The Irish Times. "What was agreed is a solid basis for negotiation and allows the EU to go to Copenhagen in a leadership role."
The EU is also determined to ensure that the Copenhagen conference will set targets for reducing emissions from both air transport and shipping, with 2011 set as a deadline for these sectors – exempted from Kyoto – to show how this would be achieved.
For the first time, the EU has committed itself to setting an explicit target of reducing emissions by 85 to 90 per cent by 2050, in line with what scientists say would be required to limit the increase in average global surface temperatures to 2 degrees.
It reaffirmed the EU’s pledge to move a 30 per cent reduction in emissions by 2020 – provided that other developed countries commit themselves to comparable efforts and that major developing countries “contribute adequately” according to their capabilities.
But Friends of the Earth policy officer Molly Walsh said the only firm EU offer was a 20 per cent cut by 2020, “with huge amounts of offsetting allowed”. This “falls far short of what science tells us is needed” and would not deliver a “fair and just” global deal.
The next round of UN climate talks will take place in Barcelona from November 2nd to 6th.
The EU’s negotiating text is at http://europa.eu/