Luxembourg, 21/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - The day after the failure of the Ecofin Council to reach agreement on the European contribution towards funding the global fight against climate change, EU environment ministers managed with difficulty, in Luxembourg on Wednesday 31 October, to adopt unanimous conclusions on climate. These develop the EU position for the Copenhagen global climate conference (7-18 December) on all points of the negotiating mandate with the exception of the financial, but environment ministers have left it up to the European Council to make a decision on the thorny issue of what to do about national quota surpluses (or surplus assigned amount units, AAU) in the global agreement.
The introduction of a long-term objective - reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by between 80% and 5% by 2050 compared with 1990 levels for the group of industrialised countries - that the EU is prepared to take up is one of the breakthroughs obtained by the Environment Council. The setting of emissions reductions objectives for the aviation and international maritime transport sectors (-10% for aviation and -20% for maritime transport by 2020, compared with 2005) is the other major breakthrough in the conclusions. The extremely long discussions on what to do about national quota surpluses after 2012 resulted in an a minima formula revealing deep divisions among member states.
President in office of the Council Andreas Carlgren, who absolutely wanted a unified position before Copenhagen had to make do with putting the matter to the European Council of 29-30 October for a decision, if possible. “There was a very full discussion on AAU. Our conclusion is simple: this will affect the environmental integrity of an agreement in Copenhagen if the matter is not dealt with properly. The EU will consider the possible options ahead of discussions with other parties. I told ministers that I would come back to this at Council environmental working group level, before Copenhagen,” Carlgren told press.
In UN jargon, AAU denote quotas allocated to the various countries under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol dependent on their emission, reduction targets. The countries which have not used up all of their quota can sell unused AAU, which will be negotiable on the market until 2012. The issue was to resolve whether or not the EU should or should not argue the case for negotiable quotas to be carried over beyond 2012. No solution has been found.
In the EU, the current surplus relates mainly to the fact that the objectives set for transition countries were higher than real emissions. One fifth of the total surplus (3 billion gigatonnes CO2 equivalent) is held by the EU, but the largest surpluses are held by third countries: Russia (8 billion gigatonnes) and Ukraine. In all, these surpluses of unused AAU represent more than half the emissions reduction effort required by the Kyoto Protocol for 2008-2012.
Central and Eastern European member states which hold surplus negotiable licences to pollute want to be able to continue to sell them. They pointed out, therefore, that removal of this possibility in the new global climate regime post-2012 would mean a corresponding reduction in their ability to contribute to the financial efforts required by climate policies.
The Commission, the Swedish Presidency and several member states were against this continuation of negotiable units, which might very well bring about the collapse of the price per tonne of carbon, for the second commitment period. The United States, too, do not want this system to continue. Member states which hold surpluses, then, should try to sell them before 2012, a Commission expert said. The idea that it would be better to find a solution within the EU, before Copenhagen, rather than make the issue an international one, is gaining ground within the Council.
By way of a final compromise, Poland and Hungary proposed keeping the surpluses, without selling them - an option that most member states rejected.
“The Ecofin failure hung heavily over discussions,” Belgian minister Evelyne Huytebroek told press. “We were all deeply disappointed that our colleagues in Ecofin were unable to reach agreement on conclusions. We hope that our heads of state will be able to come to a decision on 29 October,” Stavros Dimas told press, pointing out that if there was no money there could be no deal. Nevertheless, Carlgren welcomed the Environment Council conclusions as a clear message to the rest of the world: the EU is ready for Copenhagen and hopes to be in full negotiations with all other parties. “We have done our share of the work,” he said. The conclusions bear witness to the fact that the EU is ready to forge ahead from its unilateral target of 20-30% emissions reduction by 2020 if other parties take their fair share of the collective effort. (A.N./transl.rt)