Brussels, 28/01/2009 (Agence Europe) - In its adoption, on Wednesday 28 January, of its communication entitled "Towards a Comprehensive Climate Change Agreement in Copenhagen", the European Commission has laid out its vision of how efforts and solidarity alike should be shared out between the developed and developing countries to step up the fight against climate change post-2012. At the same time, it has put forward options to increase the financial resources and flow of investments required to ensure that a global agreement on an effective regime to fight climate change is concluded in Copenhagen in December 2009, for when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (EUROPE 9827) has expired. With its Climate/Energy package, the EU has already adopted a framework to keep its place in the vanguard of the fight against climate change. The Commission now intends to get down to details, with its proposal for innovative sources of financing, which will allow the industrialised countries and multilateral institutions to help developing countries to make their own contribution to global efforts. Apart from providing a response to a request by the European Council, which will take position on this subject on 19 and 20 March, this communication is intended to feed into the debate with the European Parliament and between the member states, and to reinforce the position of the EU in international negotiations being carried out as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
“Climate change is already at work. I cannot stress enough the importance of concluding a solid and effective agreement. This is our last chance to take control of global warming and avoid its irreversible effects", said Stavros Dimas, the commission for the environment, presenting the proposals of the College to the press. "The European plan for economic upturn and similar measures taken throughout the world to face up to the economic crisis provide us with an opportunity to promote the investment needed in the field of low-CO2 technologies, whilst boosting growth, innovation and job creation. We have targeted investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. But in order to reach an agreement in Copenhagen, it will be crucial to find new sources of funding", the commissioner added. He sees it as a simple equation: "No money, no agreement". He hopes that the EU will bear this in mind.
On the basis of the independent estimates of the United Nations, the Commission puts at €175 billion a year the additional net investment needed internationally between 2013 and 2020. "More than half of this sum must be invested in the developing countries. Most of this money will come from the private sector and the global carbon market", said Mr Dimas. However, the Commission's communication contains no trace of the €30 billion a year mentioned in a previous unofficial version of the text to support adaptation, clean energy, the fight against deforestation and degradation of forests in these poor countries. This met with the great consternation of the development and environmental NGOs, which spoke out against the "rhetoric" of the EU. When asked why this change had been made, Stavros Dimas replied: "30 billion a year, that maybe the figure, but it will be negotiated. The end figure will depend on the level of ambition and on the low-carbon development strategies of the developing countries".
In order to unblock innovative sources of funding, the Commission proposes two options, which are currently being debated at the UN: either an annual commitment on behalf of the wealthy countries in favour of the developing countries (DCs), based on their level of emissions (principle of polluter pays) and GNI per head of population; or a deduction from the auction revenue of the wealthy countries, to be paid into a special fund.
In order to keep the temperature increase at 2°C above pre-industrial levels, the global vision of the agreement must be a 50% reduction in global emissions compared to 1990 figures by 2050 (or a reduction between 80 and 95% for the industrialised countries): this is the Commission's premise, on the basis of its proposals on the key elements of an agreement in Copenhagen.
The industrialised countries must shoulder the greatest share of efforts, by collectively reducing their emissions by 30% by 2020 compared to 1990 figures. As the EU has already taken this commitment, as long as the other industrialised countries make similar efforts, the Commission proposes four key parameters to achieve the comparability of efforts: - GNI per head of population (as per the EU climate package); - efficiency to identify the reduction potential; - demographic trends; - efforts to reduce emissions already made between 1990 and 2005 and taking account of surplus emissions compared to the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.
All of the countries of the OECD, the member states, the candidate countries and potential candidates should adopt emissions objectives, the Commission believes.
Developing countries should adopt national climate change attenuation programmes to limit growth in their collective emissions to15-30% below business as usual levels by 2020, depending on their respective capabilities and their attenuation potential. The Commission, taking account of the current recession, said that the effort required should be closer to the bottom end (15%). Developing countries should also adopt low-carbon development strategies by 2011 for the poorest countries, and before the Copenhagen conference for the more advanced. After the Copenhagen conference, developing countries should develop improved systems for measuring and monitoring emissions (an emissions inventory is a must), improve their capabilities and properly implement their strategies. There will be a review of the targets for developing and developed countries in 2016 to take account of the very latest scientific information from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose next report is planned for 2015.
The clean development mechanism should be reformed so as to exclude certain types of project that are not up to the standard expected, to ensure the environmental integrity of the system so that funding goes to appropriate projects and to develop a sectoral system for the most advanced countries able to be involved in the attenuation effort. “By 2020, we want emerging countries to be moving towards a cap and emissions trading system,” said a DG Environment expert.
National carbon markets should be developed and gradually form links with one another. The Commission proposes the creation of an OECD-wide carbon market by 2015. “Such a market is becoming more and more of a possibility,” said Dimas, noting the commitment made by President Obama to put in place a federal cap and emissions trading system. High level officials from DG Environment were due to travel to Washington on 28 January for talks on this issue. (A.N./transl.fl/rt)