Brussels, 12/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Environment Council, which met on Wednesday under the presidency of Magda Alvoet, made progress in the follow-up to the Marrakesh conference on climate change. All congratulated the Presidency and the Commission for having allowed the Union obtain the international community's approval for ratification of the Kyoto Protocol in time for the sustainable development world summit (Johannesburg, September 2002). Examination of the state of national ratification procedures is encouraging: all Member States have begun the exercise and should have completed it within the time required, that is end June 2002 at the latest. Luxembourg, Finland and France have already completed their procedures. Portugal will have done the same before end 2001. The text proposed for ratification of the Protocol on behalf of the Commission no longer poses a problem. The difficulty that Denmark has with the reference year for the reduction of greenhouse gases (the year 1990 during which its level of emissions was already very low) will be settled at technical level, without reopening "burden sharing" between Member States. There is no longer any need to challenge the legal base as Margot Wallström announced that the Commission would modify it by following the recent ruling by the Court of Justice on the Cartagena Protocol. The Spanish delegation announced the organisation, on 4 March, of an informal meeting of environment ministers for ensuring follow-up.
The Council president welcomed the political debate on the future Community system for CO2 emissions trading summarising them in the following way: 1) a majority is in favour of a compulsory system guaranteeing greater effectiveness and wide company participation, but the delegations that support a voluntary system (Germany, UK, Italy, Finland and Greece) have shown they are capable of openness. 2) A large majority is in favour of free granting of emission quotas, at least in the start-up phase, with respect for the polluter-pays principle (Sweden defended trading, Austria and Germany urged for a mixed system); almost all want harmonised rules for criteria and granting methods in order to prevent competition distortion; 2) a majority hope the system will be limited initially to CO2 but then extended to other greenhouses gases (the United Kingdom and Ireland hoped to extend it) and firstly applies to a harmonised list of industrial sectors; 3) almost all want emissions from electricity production to be invoiced to the producer and not to the consumer (as recommended by the United Kingdom and the Netherlands).
Conclusions adopted on the European climate change programme and the elaboration of additional coordinated policies and measures stress the advantages of tax incentives and the role that sulphur-free fuels may play in reducing emissions from the transport sector.