EU Unlikely to Offer Deeper CO2 Cut Before Summit, Poland Says
The European Union is unlikely to propose a deepening of the bloc’s greenhouse-gas reduction target before the next global climate summit, due to start in November, Polish Environment MinisterAndrzej Kraszewski said.
The EU, which wants to lead the global fight against climate change, is on schedule to meet its binding goal of cutting emissions by 20 percent in 2020 compared with 1990 levels. It has said it’s ready to move to a 30 percent target if other countries follow suit.
Kraszewski, who met with EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard in Brussels yesterday before Poland adopts the rotating EU presidency in July, said Europe will keep its options open during the international climate talks in Durban, South Africa, scheduled from November 28 to December 9.
“I don’t expect a proposal from the European Commission on a deeper target before Durban,” he told reporters today. “The Polish government has repeatedly highlighted its negative opinion about a stricter goal. The conditions for it, namely comparable efforts by other countries such as China or the U.S., haven’t been met.”
Carbon-dioxide allowances under the EU emissions trading system, a cornerstone of the bloc’s climate initiative, traded 1.5 percent higher at 16.59 euros a metric ton on the ICE Futures Europe exchange as of 11:52 a.m. in London. The contract has gained 17 percent this year.
Kyoto Expiry
Global talks to iron out a climate-protection framework after the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 have stalled amid differences between developing and industrialized countries.
While envoys from more than 190 nations at the last United Nations climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, agreed in December to send as much as $100 billion a year to vulnerable nations by 2020, protect forests and outline methods to verify cuts in fossil fuel emissions, disagreements have kept the negotiators from crafting a new binding agreement.
As China, India, Brazil and South Africa pressed developed nations to make pledges of bigger cuts, Japan, Russia and Canada said they don’t want to extend the Kyoto treaty to the so-called second commitment period unless the two biggest emitters, China and the U.S., accept the agreement.
“The world is recovering from a crisis and certain countries are not willing to make long-term commitments,” Kraszewski said. “But I still think that the second commitment of the Kyoto Protocol is possible under certain conditions.”
‘Scale Up Efforts’
The EU urged governments and businesses in March to make energy efficiency a higher priority to help the bloc surpass its current carbon-reduction goal and achieve a 25-percent cut in pollution, reduce reliance on fossil fuels and boost security of energy supplies.
The EU may cut pollution by 25 percent domestically in 2020 as long as it steps up energy-saving measures, according to an analysis by the commission. The most cost-efficient scenario to reach the EU aim of reducing carbon discharges by 80 percent in 2050 is to cut emissions by 40 percent in 2030 and 60 percent in 2040, the commission said.
“We’re looking into the possibilities of how we can scale up efforts,” said Isaac Valero-Ladron, climate spokesman for the commission. “We’re still in a debate on going to 30 percent and in the coming months we’ll come up with a breakdown of costs at national level for EU member states.”
A decision by the 27-member EU to adopt a more ambitious emissions-reduction target would have to be backed by national governments and the European Parliament.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at ekrukowska@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net;
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