Brussels, 18/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has proposed to build a new alliance between the EU and developing countries to help the world's poorest states, which are often the ones most affected by global warming, to prepare for climate change, to adapt to it and to mitigate its effects.
Adopting a communication on creating a global alliance between the EU and developing countries to combat climate change, the College of Commissioners, on 18 September, gave the green light to an initiative taken by European Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel, in association with Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas and External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner.
What is meant by “alliance” is a permanent structured dialogue on climate change with developing countries and concrete cooperation on a wide range of actions which the EU will help fund through its development policy.
“This communication responds to a pressing and legitimate demand from the poorest countries, which are, at the same time, the ones most affected by climate change. It is in these least advanced countries and small developing island states that the impact of climate change will be most dramatic,” said Michel, presenting the initiative to the press. It is, then, on these countries that priority action will be focused.
The increase in the number and scale of humanitarian catastrophes linked to extreme climatic conditions over the last two months was sufficient too prove the need for action, the Commissioner said. He noted that, in July and August, the Commission had to take an “unprecedented” number of decisions to provide funding for humanitarian aid, amounting to €24.5 million, particularly for the floods in Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Sudan, drought in Moldova, and force 5 hurricanes in the Caribbean, two in the space of three weeks.
The global alliance proposed by the Commission will operate in five areas:
supporting the implementation of concrete adaptation measures, such as action plans, support for innovative research such as intelligent irrigation systems and early warning systems;
reducing carbon emissions due to deforestation, notably through the enforcement of FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade), Michel said, alluding to the voluntary agreement concluded with some developing countries on the implementation of the Community action plan against illegal forestry and the trade in illegally felled trees;
helping poor countries take greater advantage of the global carbon market through the clean development mechanism which transfers clean technology from industrialised countries;
helping poor countries to be better prepared for natural disasters;
including climate change in development strategies and combating poverty.
The European Commission has already allocated €50 million to this alliance for the period 2008-2010, but, tallying up all available Community resources, some €300 million could be provided for the same period. This funding, from the European Development Fund for ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) countries, “has already been identified in joint planning to fund early warning mechanisms. But this is only the start. More resources are required to adequately meet the needs,” Michel said. The Commission has, therefore, appealed to member states to allocate to the global alliance against climate change some of the additional resources they are committed to providing to raise public aid for development to 0.51% of GDP by 2010 and to 0.7% by 2015.
Michel told a journalist who asked him if he intended to bring forward binding legislation banning the import into the EU of illegally felled tropical woods, as called for by the European Parliament, that he was very much in favour of this, unlike the member states. A letter sent by the Commissioner at the start of his term of office to sound out opinion in the member states brought little response: “Not even half the member states answered”. Those who oppose the measure speak about the difficulty of setting up a certification system that would be sure to prevent triangular trade in wood of illegal origin. (an)