Brussels, 05/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - The latest alarming report from the international experts of the inter-governmental panel on climate change (EUROPE 9358) has not stopped making waves. The serious nature of its forecasts shaped the Paris conference on global ecological governance. It also favoured the support pledged by 46 countries- mainly the countries of the EU and a few countries of Africa and Latin America- for the proposal of French President Jacques Chirac to create a United Nations environment agency.
This United Nations Environment Organisation (UNEO), which found little favour with the United States, Russia or the emerging countries, would give a global political impetus to the fight against global warming and to “avert the dangers which threaten the very survival of humanity”, by conferring greater coherence on the disjointed programmes of the current United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
In his speech to the conference, Stavros Dimas, Commissioner for the Environment, laid emphasis on the advantages of such an initiative. “There is no way a single group of countries will be able on its own to tackle climate change. If there is one example of why we need to work jointly, and the international level, it is the fight against climate change. This requires not only a strong political will. It also requires well-funded and functioning multilateral institutions (…). We in the EU have proposed to look seriously at the way the UN deals with environmental issues, and we have proposed to strengthen the environmental voice within the UN, notably through strengthening UNEP, and upgrading it into a UN Environmental Organisation. We believe that this way, the UN will be better equipped to deal with today's pressing environmental issues, from water to air pollution, the biodiversity, to climate change”, he said.
This conference also gave the Commissioner the opportunity to stress the economic advantages to be gained from moving towards a low-carbon economy, and to present the most recent initiatives of the European Commission to intensify the fight against climate change- its “Energy for Europe” strategy, the proposed objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30% between now and 2020 (compared to 1990 levels), to be targeted by the industrialised countries in international negotiations on what will happen post-2012, and the EU's unilateral objective of reducing its own emissions by 20%, should an international agreement prove impossible.
The Commissioner went on to confirm the Commission's intention to legislate to reduce CO2 emissions from new private cars more effectively. “For the car sector, as one of the main emitters of CO2, legislation is now necessary to reach the Community objective of 120g of CO2/km (…) I am therefore pleased that the Commission will adopt the decision to introduce legislation for CO2 emissions from cars next week”.
In its communication on this subject, which is expected for 7 February, the Commission will stick to this average objective per car between now and 2012, but the presentation of this binding measure may be deferred until 2008, to ensure that there is enough time for a detailed impact analysis to be carried out by the Commission, in order to inform the car builders of the best way of achieving this objective. This is one of the hypotheses which would allow José Manuel Barroso, President of the Commission, to resolve the differences of opinion between Stavros Dimas and his colleague for Industry, Günter Verheugen, without disconcerting the German car industry too much.
In an interview with the Bild am Sonntag of 4 February, Commissioner Dimas stressed that Germany, which currently holds the rotating Presidency of the EU, was not a pioneer in the field of the fight against climate change, as “a certain number of other countries are closer to achieving their Kyoto objectives, such as the United Kingdom and Sweden” (our translation). The Commission added that “there are others behind Germany”. However, the Commission refuses to get into a row with Berlin. In response to a press invitation to comment on Mr Dimas's comments, his spokesperson, Barbara Helfferich on 5 February declined that Commissioner Dimas was particularly angry with Germany: “Stavros Dimas did not get at Germany or anyone. The Commissioner granted an interview to the Bild am Sonntag on the Kyoto objectives and how the various Member States intend to achieve them. He praised Germany for its efforts to try to move closer to this objective. The Commission has always stressed the fact that the EU and its Member States play a major part in the fight against climate change”. (an).