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EU Nations Still Calculating Stance on Carbon Targets (Update1)
2010-10-04 16:53:17.871 GMT
(Updates with Hedegaard's comment from third paragraph.)
By Ewa Krukowska
Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) -- European Union member states are
still considering a more ambitious emissions-reduction target,
climate chief Connie Hedegaard said.
The 27-nation bloc is on schedule to meet its 2020 goal of
cutting greenhouse gases by 20 percent from 1990 levels. It
stopped short of moving to a more ambitious goal at a global
climate summit in Copenhagen last year, citing a lack of
comparable effort by the U.S. and China.
French, German and U.K. officials said in July the EU
should move to a 30 percent target or risk falling behind the
U.S. and China in developing low-carbon technology. A 30 percent
target is feasible and affordable, according to a commission
study published in May.
"We delivered them ammunition, some of economic
calculations and assessments in the communication and it's very
much up to member states to try to reflect back," Hedegaard
told deputies in the European Parliament in Brussels today.
"Some countries have reported back, but the majority has not
been very clear yet."
The commission, the EU's regulatory arm, is also working on
a detailed analysis of the cost of a stricter goal at a national
level at a request by member states. The bloc's environment
ministers will next discuss climate goals at a meeting on Oct.
14 in Luxembourg, Hedegaard said.
Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said last week
he would propose at the next summit of the EU heads of state
that the bloc should unilaterally deepen its goal.
Stricter Target 'Counterproductive'
Polish Environment Minister Andrzej Kraszewski said earlier
this month an EU move to a stricter target without comparable
effort by other nations would be "counterproductive."
"I'm very much of the belief that those who think that we
risk carbon leakage if we are too ambitious should just be aware
we can also lose jobs if we are too complacent," Hedegaard
said. "It's very difficult to find an intelligent balance."
The next round of international climate talks is scheduled
to start in Cancun, Mexico, toward the end of November. This
week negotiators are meeting in Tianjin, China, to prepare
ground for the summit held under the umbrella of the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
"Now in Tianjin the negotiators should try to extract from
a very long text a few areas in each category where they need
more political guidance in order to be able to conclude an
ambitious deal," Hedegaard said. "Cancun must keep the
momentum or else we'll have a problem with the UNFCCC process.
If Cancun doesn't deliver substantial progress, then it's not
easy to see what other forum could there be."
For Related News and Information:
Emission market news NI ECREDITS <GO>
Today's top energy stories ETOP <GO>
European power-markets home page EPWR <GO>
Sustainability, environmental indexes SEI <GO>
--Editors: Alex Devine, Will Kennedy.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at +32-2-237-4331 or
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
