Vilnius, 17/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - Four months ahead of the UN climate conference in Warsaw (COP 19, 11-22 November), the EU environment ministers, meeting in Vilnius on Wednesday 17 July for their informal Council, sent the EU and the international community two clear messages: the level of action currently planned by the international community to limit the increase in temperatures to 2°C is largely insufficient to prevent catastrophic global warming, and the new legally binding global climate agreement, to be concluded in 2015 to enter into force in 2020, should encourage all parties to take ambitious and innovative measures. This is necessary not only for the welfare of the climate, but for that of the economy as well. The 28 stressed the great many opportunities offered by the transition to a green, low-carbon economy.
The Lithuanian Presidency had invited them to debate the next steps towards this global climate agreement, stating, amongst other things, what they hoped would be the principal results of COP 19 as a crucial stage towards the Paris conference (COP 21 in 2015) and how confidence in the negotiating process can be built.
The attendance of Xie Zhenhua, the Chinese negotiator (Vice-President of the National Development and Reform Commission), at the second part of the discussion was a highlight of this informal Council, confirming the EU's desire to build bridges with the major partner (20% of global emissions and with a level of emissions per head of population still on the increase), just like the China-US cooperation agreement concluded a week ago in the framework of the strategic and economic dialogue between the United States and China (Washington, 10 July) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the main sources of pollution (such as lorries, manufacturing and coal-fired power stations), and to boost energy efficiency and renewable energies.
“The Warsaw conference must set a clear pathway for the adoption of ambitious global agreement in 2015 as well as determine the main elements and scope of the agreement. The EU must speak with one voice in the negotiations with the other parties. China has assured us that it is inclined to cooperate actively”, said Valentinas Mazuronis, the Lithuanian minister for the environment and current president of the Environment Council, summing up the contents of the debate before the press. In the view of Martin Korolec, the Polish environment minister who is to chair COP 19, the Warsaw conference must “lay down the foundations of the agreement”, with the details to be negotiated subsequently. An initial draft text will be discussed at the UN climate conference of Lima at the end of 2014 (COP20).
“All of the countries need to be on board for the 2015 agreement, without any division between the firm commitments of some and the simple contribution of others. This was already the conclusion of the Durban conference. The discussion on the EU's role in the negotiations between now and 2015 focus on the issue of whether the new international regime should be created using a 'bottom-up' or 'top-down' approach. 'Bottom-up' means concrete actions for all countries. A 'top-down' approach would define the share of effort to be assumed by each country. These two approaches are not mutually exclusive, they should be concomitant”, said Connie Hedegaard, Commissioner for Climate Action. The EU is already discussing what will happen in 2030 to help it to understand what it is capable of doing, and the Commission will submit a proposal on the 2030 objective by the end of the year, to be examined by the heads of state and government in March 2014, she added. Stressing that the Chinese are currently putting together their national legislation and are starting work on the pilot schemes for their ETS “with the help of the European Commission” and are preparing a roadmap for the decarbonisation of their economy 2050, she took pains to stress that EU-China cooperation in climate matters is not a new phenomenon. “The whole world has been waiting for years for the United States and China to commit themselves more in the international climate negotiations. Now we have signs that this is happening and it is of course highly positive”, she said, adding that she is now awaiting concrete action. Dialogue with China is constant at expert level and cooperation on the ETS and urbanisation initiatives is already substantial. Use must be made of the forthcoming EU-China summit to bring cooperation to the highest level, she stated.
In response to a journalist who asked Xie on the sidelines of the Council whether a bilateral EU-China agreement, similar to the one between China and the US, could be concluded before 2015, the Chinese negotiator replied: “The Chinese and the Americans have concluded an agreement in the field of climate change. We have identified the priority areas of cooperation. The next stage will be to concretise these priorities. I came to Vilnius for an exchange of views with the EU ministers in order to reinforce our cooperation still further. If both sides have the willingness we can establish even closer cooperation. On the one hand, we can push forward the negotiating process; on the other, we can strengthen bilateral cooperation. There is no doubt about that”. According to the UN, China is on track to achieve the commitment it took before Copenhagen, to reduce the intensity of its emissions by between 40 and 45% by 2020 (compared to 2005 figures), to increase its share of non-fossil energy by 15% by 2020 and increase the surface area of its forests by 40 million hectares. (AN/transl.fl)