Brussels, 26/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - Ahead of the United Nations climate change conference in Cancun (Mexico) on 29 November to 10 December, the European Parliament is keeping up the momentum. A few days before the opening of the COP 16 conference, the EP adopted a very firm official line in plenary on Thursday 25 November, setting out a pragmatic and nuanced negotiating mandate for the EU at COP 16. The MEPs urge the EU to improve its diplomatic ambiance to get its voice heard and to publicly and unequivocally reiterate its commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, showing itself to be more ambitious in the interest of its own economic growth, in the interest of the climate and in the interest of “climate justice” towards developing countries that are the most vulnerable to the impact of global warming.
The MEPs calling for an increase in the EU's offer to reduce emissions by 2020 from 20% to 30% on the 1990 levels, irrespective of the outcome of the talks in Mexico, managed to defeat the defenders of pragmatic realism (see EUROPE 10263) to the delight of the Greens/EFA, Social Democrats, ALDE and GUE, which have repeatedly stressed that a 20% cut would in effect mean business as usual because of the impact of the economic crisis, but to the dismay of the EPP group. The Christian Democrats slammed voted against a resolution described as “green utopianism” by Karl-Heinz Florenz (EPP, Germany).
Unite and be more proactive. The European Parliament calls on the world's political leaders to demonstrate genuine authority and genuine political will during the negotiations, urging the European Commission and EU member states to iron out their disagreements on land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) and excess emissions rights, to speak with a single voice and to improve internal decision-making in order to be able to react more rapidly during the actual negotiating process than they proved capable of doing in Copenhagen. The EP stresses the urgent need to reach tangible decisions on: financing (how much cash, from where and managed by whom) for developing countries, ensuring that the money comes in as an add-on to development aid rather than being a renaming of aid already granted; adjustment; forestry; resource efficiency; technology transfer; monitoring, notification and verification of reduction volumes (MRV).
New cash to restore confidence. Pointing out that at the UN conference in Copenhagen, developed countries pledged to provide at least US$30 billion in additional funding for 2010-12 (known as “Rapid Reaction Funding”) and US$100 billion a year by 2020, the EP says that the EU's contribution to the climate change reduction and adjustment needs of developing countries should be at least €30bn in fresh cash a year by 2020. The EP argues that timely release of the €7.2bn promised by the EU for 2010-12 will be “key” to restoring a climate of confidence at the outset and throughout the negotiations at Cancun. The IPCC - whose main conclusions for 2007 have been adjusted by the UN after they come under attack - says that keeping the rise in the planet's temperature to within 2 degrees Celsius on average will require a halt in the rise in world emissions by 2015 at the latest and reduction by at least 50% on the 1990 levels by 2050. MEPs explain that the current promises will come nowhere near achieving this.
Green growth to generate emissions reductions of 30%. Echoing the European Commission's ideas set out in its analysis of measures to achieve the 30% target in greenhouse gas emissions reductions, the European Parliament says that it is feasible and in the interest of the EU to pursue a target of reducing emissions by more than 20% because it would boost green jobs, growth and security. The EP urges the EU to acutely support the REDD + mechanism to reduce emissions arising from deforestation and forest degradation in order to better discern what causes deforestation and ensure the proper involvement of indigenous peoples and local communities in verifying and notifying the practice. The EU is also urged to ensure that the REDD mechanism is given a code of conduct in Cancun to ensure the respect of the rights of populations living in forests and rainforests, which would in itself reduce the amount of deforestation. (A.N./transl.fl)