Brussels, 27/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - If, as they must, the older EU Member States want to meet their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, then it is imperative that they step up their individual efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This was underlined by the European Commission on Friday when it presented to the press the conclusions that it draws from the most recent Member State emissions projections for 2008-2012.
The 2006 progress report on progress accomplished in achieving the targets set under the Kyoto Protocol is a synthesis of all the projections made by Member States to give the Commission a comprehensive picture of the future situation, in terms of trends.
The report reveals that the fifteen older Member States (EU15) will just reach the collective target set for the EU under the Kyoto Protocol (a reduction of 8% of total emissions between 2008 and 2012 compared to 1990, the reference year). This target may be reached in 2010 as long as all the measures foreseen by the Member Stats are implemented. This good news is, however, tempered by the fact that seven of these Member States - Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain - foresee exceeding the national emissions ceiling that they are bound to keep under the agreement on sharing out the burden between the 15 older Member States.
In a press release, Stavros Dimas, European Environment Commissioner, comments: “These projections show there is no room for complacency or error. The Commission continues to launch new initiatives to reduce European emissions, as the Energy Efficiency Action Plan announced last week demonstrates. But all Member States must pull their weight to ensure that we deliver on our collective commitment. Those that are not on track urgently need to step up efforts to meet their targets, if necessary by taking further national measures to reduce emissions. Only if national allocation plans for the second period of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme are ambitious enough will each Member State be able to achieve its Kyoto obligations”. This does not seem to be happening, as far as one can judge from the first eighteen plans received by the Commission and that the latter is preparing to send to their authors because they are incomplete or because the quota allocations are too generous flouting the data now available on real emissions levels in 2005 (see EUROPE 9293).
The Commissioner's spokeswoman, Barbara Helfferich, pointed out to the press that “the emissions quota trading system is a very important tool. And since road transport is the main cause of emissions, the Commission will, at the end of the year, present a review of the voluntary CO2 emissions reduction system by cars, as well as a proposal aimed at including the aviation sector in the Community system for emissions quota trading”.
How will the EU15 manage to reach its collective targets in 2010? The Commission specifies that, according to the latest projections, existing strategies and measures being implemented should allow future EU15 emissions to be reduced by 0.6% compared to the levels reached in 1990. Additional measures already approved both at Community and national level should bring about a 4.6% reduction on condition that they are implemented in time.
Furthermore, ten of the fifteen Member States plan to gain emissions reduction credits from third country projects carried out under Kyoto's market-based mechanisms (the so-called flexible mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol). If these plans are fully realised, they would further reduce emissions to 7.2% below base year levels by 2010. With the addition of afforestation and reforestation activities, which create biological “sinks” that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the total reduction could just reach 8.0%, the Kyoto target.
For the current twenty-five Member States (EU25), the overall rate of emissions reduction could be 10.8% by 2010. Unlike the EU15, the EU25 does not have a collective emissions target under the Kyoto Protocol.
Eight of the ten new Member States have individual reduction targets of 6-8% compared to the levels reached in 1990 and predict that these targets will be met. No targets have been defined for Cyprus and Malta. (an)