Pete Harrison and Huw Jones, Reuters 17 Dec 08;
BRUSSELS/STRASBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union finalized plans for its battle against global warming on Wednesday, seeking to lead the way toward a broad alliance including other big polluters like China and the United States.
The European Parliament approved a cut in carbon dioxide emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, heeding warnings of severe weather, famine and drought as the atmosphere heats up.
The deal takes on a greater importance coming just before Barack Obama assumes the U.S. presidency, amid hopes in Europe he will cooperate more on tackling climate change than incumbent George W. Bush.
"Happily Bush is going," said European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas. "Everybody knows what Mr. Obama has set as priorities -- energy security and climate change."
World leaders will meet in Copenhagen next December to try to agree a global deal, but preparatory talks in Poland ended last week with deep divisions between rich and poor nations.
The advancing economic crisis had at times threatened to derail the EU's climate negotiations.
A myriad of concessions to water down the costs for industry helped pin down a deal, although this fueled criticism from environmental groups.
DISSENT
Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had fought successfully for industries like German steel, chemicals and cement and Italian glass and ceramics, as well as their powerful auto sectors.
Lawmakers approved measures on Wednesday to cut CO2 emissions from new cars by 18 percent by 2015, after intense lobbying by the industry won it a three year reprieve.
"There was an explosion in dissent and manufacturers were at loggerheads," said Italian socialist Guido Sacconi, who led the rules for cars through parliament.
"Trying to secure a conclusion came when the car industry found itself at the epicenter of the economic crisis and this heightened difficulties," he added.
Green group politicians branded the rules as a sell-out to industry, while industry group ACEA repeated calls for billions of euros in EU support to help manufacturers meet the targets.
The biggest threat to a deal was the opposition of nine former communist nations, which feared the deal would ramp up costs for their highly polluting coal-fired power sectors.
To buy their support, the EU has offered a partial exemption and agreed to give them 12 percent of revenues from the EU's flagship emissions trading scheme (ETS), which makes industry buy permits to pollute.
The European Commission, which originated the climate laws in January, demonstrated its appetite for further action by adopting rules on eco-friendly design on Wednesday, which would cap the energy consumption of televisions on standby mode.
Environmentalists vented their anger over the dilution of the EU's ambition, most of them criticizing the high levels of carbon offsets, which allow member states to pay for most of their emissions cuts in developing nations rather than at home.
"People will look back at 2008 and ask...knowing what they knew then, why did they not do more to save all of us from the unbearable impacts from a warming planet?" said British Green group politician Caroline Lucas.
(Reporting by Huw Jones, writing by Pete Harrison; editing by Sue Thomas and Anthony Barker)
EU parliament approves climate change package
Christian Spillmann Yahoo News 17 Dec 08;
STRASBOURG (AFP) – The European Parliament on Wednesday approved the EU's climate change package, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, lifting the last hurdle to the ambitious plan.
Six texts on the package, already agreed by the 27 European Union member states, were passed by a large majority of the MEPs present.
"We have sealed the climate package," said European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering, after the vote.
The so-called "20-20-20" climate package, which Europe hopes will serve as a model to other nations, will oblige EU nations to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, make 20 percent energy savings and bring the use of renewable energy sources up to 20 percent of the total.
The parliamentary approval came five days after EU heads of state and government worked out a compromise deal on the package at a summit in Brussels.
Within the overall EU targets, each EU nation and industry sector has its own obligations under the package, and last-minute dispensations were given, particularly to Warsaw and Berlin which were concerned at the effects on industry.
German conservatives also complained that the package was too tough on industry and evoked the spectre of "carbon leakage" whereby jobs would move out of a highly regulated region with no benefit to the European economy or the global environment.
However, environmental groups complain that the package was so watered-down in the attempts to reach a deal that the measures adopted will no longer deliver on the promised climate change targets.
"The parliament has marginalised itself by lacking the courage to make even small changes to the compromises negotiated by the EU summit last Friday," said Greenpeace EU climate and energy policy director Joris den Blanken.
"Europe promised leadership on climate, but so far it has led us up the garden path. The climate package doesn't even take us half way to where we should be in the fight against climate change," he added.
"This is not quite the third industrial revolution trumpeted when proposals were presented at the beginning of the year," complained Delia Villagrasa, Senior Advisor to WWF.
"The 20 percent target sounds nice in words, but is void because EU countries are allowed to accomplish approximately three quarters of the effort outside EU borders, which translates into European emission reduced by only 4-5 percent between now and 2020," she added.
However, Swedish Liberal Democrat MEP Lena Ek hailed the agreement as "a win-win situation."
"Finally we have this package. In a period where we have to go through an economic crisis this package is a win-win situation," she said.
"The green investments will create jobs and give our industry a lead. By adopting this set of measures we have confirmed Europe's leadership in tackling global warming," she added.
"Mission accomplished," French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo told AFP. "We'll see the full benefit if we reach a global deal in Copenhagen."
The European Union hopes that its climate and energy package will serve as a model for the United States, China, India and other major polluters at international climate change talks to be held in Copenhagen next December.
The EU nations have said they are prepared to increase their greenhouse gas cuts to 30 percent if there is an international climate change deal.
The six texts adopted by the parliament constituted the main planks of the overall package -- renewable energy, emissions trading, carbon dioxide capture and storage, efforts by member states, overall reduction of CO2 emissions and reducing car emissions.
All six went through with a large majority, with between 559 and 670 European deputies voting in favour out of the total of 785.
The plan must be formally published before its measures come into effect.
