Brussels, 08/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - As the 17,000 delegates from 192 countries were in Copenhagen for the opening of the global climate conference (COP 15, 7-18 December), EU member states' foreign ministers, in Brussels on Monday 7 December, were putting the finishing touches to preparations for a European Council that will be decisive for the EU position in these international negotiations on a worldwide agreement on tackling global warming after 2012.
The European negotiating mandate is already known and has not changed: the EU still wants a comprehensive, balanced, ambitious and binding agreement. For the moment, however, the offers on the table are not felt to be sufficiently high, despite the encouraging signs sent by the United States, China, India and South Africa.
The European Council will be decisive because it is at their meeting on 10-11 December that EU heads of state and government will finally put a figure on the table for funding the immediate aid required by developing countries from 2010 to 2012, before the new agreement comes into force, it is hoped on 1 January 2013. This has already been decided. The latest discussions in the General Affairs-External Relations Council showed that delegations were ready to put their hands in their pockets to provide, on a voluntary basis (as the European Council of 29-30 October, decided), their share of the overall effort required to help the least developed and the most vulnerable countries adapt to global warming and to implement national mitigation plans in the immediate aftermath of Copenhagen. The European Commission has put his overall public funding required within the range of €5 to 7 billion per year from 2010 to 2012, and the EU is ready to take its fair share as part of an overall agreement. The figure the European Council will table will be a total in euro for the three years (and not per year, since the 2010 budgets have already been finalised). Poland and Estonia have indicated that they will contribute to this immediate funding through the sale of their “hot air” surplus on the carbon market (Assigned Amount Units, AAU).
At a joint conference, two foreign ministers were united in noting the EU's determination to contribute to the success of the Copenhagen conference. Per Stig Moller, the Danish minister, welcomed the “good atmosphere” at the opening of the conference and the will that has recently become apparent on the part of everyone to make the breakthrough. “More than 100 heads of state are expected. If they come, it means they intend to get something out of it,” he said, adding, “It is the rich countries' responsibility to support the developing countries which will be most affected”. Hence the importance of the funding for the rapid implementation of plans designed so that the poor countries “can themselves begin a process and contribute to halting climate change”. He said that there were five conditions for success in Copenhagen: 1) the agreement had to be politically binding; 2) in 2010, it should take the form of a legally binding treaty; 3) it should contain the key points of all the issues dealt with in the Bali action plan; 4) it should reflect the individual commitments of the various countries; 5) it should be accompanied by subsidiary decisions describing how the mechanisms work. “That is what we are working on. And we are ready to move form a 20% reduction to 30%” (by 2020 compared with 1990: Ed), he said. This move, however, remains conditional on similar offers from the other industrialised countries.
“Climate change is becoming a foreign policy issue,” said his UK colleague David Miliband. “The EU is determined to be a deal maker”. But, “every country must put its own house in order and be prepared to tackle the difficult and crucial issue of funding and technology transfer,” he added. As Gordon Brown said, the Copenhagen agreement has to be put into legal language within six months, he went on. Miliband welcomed the decision by US President Barack Obama to change the date of his arrival in Copenhagen from 9 to 17 December.
A breath of optimist spread through Copenhagen, with the US Environment Protection Agency's recognition, for the first time, of the negative effects of greenhouse gases on human health, thereby paving the way for regulation, without having to wait for Congress to vote on the Climate Bill. The news was hailed by many observers. Greenpeace said it showed that “the President can act - regardless of whether Congress passes legislation to cut greenhouse emissions”.
Connie Hedegaard, COP 15 chairwoman, reminded all delegates that they had to succeed: “This is our opportunity. If we waste it, it may be years before we have a better one - if we ever have another”. Anders Turesson, Chief Negotiator for the Swedish Presidency of the EU said, in similar vein, “The world is watching us. It is here that we can pave the way for a greener, more sustainable and fairer future in which development will be separate from greenhouse gas emissions”. He added that, “Copenhagen must bring a universal and legally binding agreement. If not here in Copenhagen, then as soon as possible in 2010, observing a very strict timetable”. (A.N./transl.rt)