Brussels, 10/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - Preparations for the UN climate conference in Warsaw (COP 19), planned in a month's time and the European target of reducing CO2 emissions for new cars up to 2020, will take up the lion's share of the Environment Council on Monday 14 October in Luxembourg. The Lithuanian minister for the environment, Valentinas Mazuronis Connell will be chairing this event.
With Poland hosting COP 19 but refusing any unilateral increase in the level of European targets for the international climate negotiations and with Germany's attempt to block the agreement reached in the trilogue on confirming the target average of 95 g/km de CO2 for newly registered European cars in 2020, discussions look like they could get quite heated, but without managing to reach any conclusions. Unanimous conclusions on COP 19 are, however, fervently hoped for by the Lithuanian presidency, in order to reach a written position that the EU will defend in Warsaw and prevent a situation arising where no conclusions are reached, as was the case before the Doha Conference (COP 18, December 2012).
The session agenda is as follows. The Commissioner for the Environment, Janez Potocnik and his counterpart for climate action, Connie Hedegaard, will be representing the European Commission.
Climate: The Council is expected to adopt conclusions defining the EU's position for the 19th conference of parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (COP 19, 11-22 November), as a crucial stage before the Paris Conference (COP 21), where a legally binding global climate agreement should be concluded in 2015, which will enter into force in 2020. The draft conclusions call for implementation of existing decisions and that progress is made on the elaboration of this agreement up to 2015 and that efforts are stepped up in the action currently planned by the international community to limit temperature rises to 2°C (compared to pre-industrial levels), given that these are largely insufficient if catastrophic global warming is to be avoided.
Poland is opposed to any offers being improved by the EU on those put on the table in 2007 before the Paris Conference. This involves a collective reduction of 20% in emissions up to 2020 and 30% if the other parties agree to make comparable efforts. At this stage, they want the conclusions to be limited to this objective and that no timetable is put forward for any more ambitious reduction levels. The European Parliament itself recently refused to cosign a 25% reduction target for 2020.
Marcin Korolec, the Polish minister for the environment said that COP 19 simply has to delineate the parameters of the agreement and explain what its foundations should be, as well as its general rules and structure. He also suggested that they should be able to benefit from this debate to inform the Council of the preparatory conference (pre-COP) results held in Warsaw on 2-4 October with around forty developed and developing countries (see EUROPE 10935).
CO2 emissions reductions from cars: On 4 October, Germany managed to obtain another postponement in the vote at Coreper, which was supposed to confirm the political agreement reached on 25 June in the trilogue on the draft regulation defining the modalities that would allow the average legislative target of 95 grams/km to be reached by 2020. The Council will examine the contents of this agreement (see EUROPE 10937 and 10936). 41 votes are required if this agreement is to be confirmed at qualified majority voting.
It is public knowledge that Germany is seeking to impose a minority blockage so as not to upset its major car manufacturers. If it manages to do so, the presidency will not propose that the delegations take a vote. In the knowledge that there are only four weeks left to reach a formal agreement in a first reading before the end of the year, this delay will be used to try and reach an agreement if one is not forthcoming, in a second reading, which would be required. This would not necessarily be in Germany's interest because a period of procedures significantly extended to a second reading, could see the Parliament adopting stricter demands
Waste transfers: The Council will hold an exchange of views on the draft regulation submitted last July to amend Regulation 1013/2006 on the transfer of waste in the EU and between the EU and third countries, in an effort to achieve a more standard application of this legislation in the EU. Guided by the presidency, ministers will be asked to say whether they believe that the scope is appropriate and if the proposal respects the right balance between the need to guarantee conditions for fair competition and sufficient flexibility.
The Council will also be debriefed by the Commission about the agreement reached at the IACO for reducing CO2 emissions from civil aviation on the basis of a market mechanism, the monitoring system and a report and verification of greenhouse gas emissions from the international maritime transport sector. (AN/transl.fl)