Brussels, 03/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - As the UN climate conference in Doha begins its ministerial phase, all the stops need to be pulled out to ensure that the COP18 is successful. The European Union is also placing a lot of hope on the roundtable the Qataris are organising on Wednesday 5 December and that the negotiators agree on ambitious targets.
On Monday, Sofoclis Aletraris, the acting president of the Environment Council pointed out that the EU wants a result that enables progress to be made in a balanced way in all areas of the decisions taken at Doha. It is important that: 1) an agreement is reached on all the different stages that lead to a binding agreement with all the different countries giving their support, particularly on a concrete work programme for 2015, and a decision on additional measures to adopt before 2020, to ensure that global warming remains below 2°C. Moreover, although an initial text was put on the table on the weekend, negotiators have a lot of work to do on deciding how to increase the level of ambition, explained the president; 2) reaching an agreement on the period of the second Kyoto Protocol on which the EU is committed, as part of a transition stage towards the 2015 agreement. Aletraris reiterated the fact that a five-year period, would create a new gap between 2015 and 2020, which the EU does not want. The EU wants an eight year period and to guarantee the immediate application of the second period from 1 January 2013, without having to wait for ratification; 3) concluding questions still pending in the workgroup on long-term co-operation, such as the modalities and procedures for new market mechanisms, so that this area of negotiations can be closed. He explained that, closing this area of negotiations would allow for all resources to be focused on the Durban Task Force.
Connie Hedegaard, the Commissioner for climate action, called on all the major economies to follow the example of the EU. She said that they wanted a second period of commitments that could be ratified but that too few countries were making a commitment to this aim. She added that all the different parties had to ask themselves what the countries that are responsible for 85% of global emissions were doing in the short term. Although China accounts for 7.2 tons of CO2 emissions per capita, the US stands at 17.3 and Russia at 12.8. She pointed out that the EU (7.5 tonnes per capita) would do its best to ensure that its 2012 objective is on track and that it reaches its 2020 objective (-20%, compared to 1990 levels). She also pointed out that the EU offer focused on a 30% reduction, which was still on the table but was “conditional” and subject to similar efforts being made by the other parties. With regard to the immediate application of the second Kyoto period of commitments, the Commissioner explained that this was already part of EU legislation and that the EU had a directive on energy efficiency and had already formulated concrete proposals on reducing emissions from cars and vans, biofuels, fluorinated gases that produced greenhouse gas emissions and mainstreaming concerns into all EU policies. Hedegaard declared that they were not resting on their laurels and that a lot still needed to be done without waiting until 2020. She is hoping that Wednesday's Roundtable will produce constructive exchanges.
On the question of the difficult negotiations regarding hot air surpluses (AAU - Assigned Amount Units), a point that divided EU member states during the first week of the COP 18), Hedegaard sought to provide reassurance and explained that after 1 January the EU could no longer use them for compliance (under the terms of the Kyoto reduction targets: Ed). She said that Australia would not be using them and those that were committed to a second period would not use them either. Greenpeace, however, was less optimistic and is urging European countries to not support Poland and Russia, countries that are seeking to maintain the biggest loopholes in the Kyoto protocol. (AN/transl.fl)