EU To Propose $200 Billion Climate Tax On Rich Nations

Pete Harrison and Gerard Wynn, PlanetArk 23 Jan 09;

BRUSSELS/LONDON - Rich nations could raise $200 billion in climate funds through a levy on their greenhouse gases from 2013-2020 to help poor countries prepare for global warming, the European Union will say next week.

The plan is set out in an EU paper outlining the bloc's position ahead of U.N.-led climate talks in Copenhagen in December, meant to agree a new, global climate treaty.

The fund-raising idea is the most specific yet from any rich country or bloc on how to persuade developing nations to agree binding, concrete steps to slow their greenhouse gas emissions -- one of the key obstacles in climate talks so far.

The draft paper to be published next week, and seen by Reuters, calls on rich countries to pay for developing countries to cut their greenhouse gases, called mitigation, and prepare for unavoidable warming, called adaptation.

"All developed countries will need to contribute to financial resources for adaptation and mitigation in developing countries via public funding and the use of carbon crediting mechanisms," it said.

Rich countries should commit to binding limits on their greenhouse gas emissions through 2020. They could then pay a set price for every ton of emissions, the paper said, under one of "two principal options to generate funding."

The other option would be to pay at rates per ton on a global carbon market, and so not guarantee a price.

If widely agreed the plan could encourage the world's top carbon emitter, China, to agree to internationally binding climate measures. That in turn could satisfy a general pre-condition made by the second biggest emitter, the United States, for signing up to a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

The United States did not ratify Kyoto because the pact contained no concrete commitments by developing countries, a position the new Obama administration is likely to maintain regarding a successor pact after 2012.

The EU paper said that if the main developed countries paid 1 euro per ton of greenhouse gases in 2013 rising to 3 euros in 2020, that would raise 164 billion euros ($213 billion) over the period.

It called for a gradual phasing out of carbon offsetting, which allows rich nations to lay off their greenhouse gas emissions by paying for cuts in developing countries.

The EU is the world's biggest buyer of carbon offsets, and last month agreed climate targets which allowed EU states and companies to offset up to 3 billion tons of their greenhouse gas emissions from 2008-2020, or more than the annual emissions of the Netherlands.

Carbon offsetting allows developing countries, which at present face no binding climate targets, to earn money in return for curbing greenhouse gases.

The EU wants to phase out that option for "advanced developing countries," which the paper said should face binding caps instead. But it gave no timeline for the change.

EU to pressure US, emerging countries on climate change
Christian Spillmann Yahoo News 24 Jan 09;

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Eager to take the lead on climate change, the European Union aims to pile pressure on the United States and big emerging countries to sign up to an ambitious strategy to reduce greenhouse gases.

Last month European leaders approved an ambitious climate change action plan which the 27-nation bloc hopes will become a model for international negotiations in Copenhagen in December.

"We will do everything to make (Copehagen) a success," European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters on Friday. "The problem is to know whether the others are ready to do what we have been doing."

The European Commission is to unveil on Wednesday a strategy for gradually ramping up investments aimed at tackling climate change to a target of 175 billion euros per year by 2020, including 30 billion euros to help poor countries.

Developed countries would be expected to contribute 95 billion euros to the plan.

Among the sources of finance, the commission recommends making polluters pay for each tonne of carbon dioxide that they emit.

With a price starting at one euro per tonne rising gradually to three euros, the plan would generate about 13 billion euros in 2013 if used in the main developed countries, rising to 28 billion euros by 2020.

In the same strategy paper, obtained by AFP, the commission lays out 200 actions that are not expected to bear a prohibitive cost for reducing carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.

The measures, which target the energy, agriculture and forestry sectors, would save 39 billion tonnes of CO2 from escaping into the atmosphere by 2020 at a cost of between four to 10 euros per tonne.

EU leaders committed last month to a climate-energy package that would decrease the bloc's greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, make 20 percent energy savings and bring renewable energy sources up to 20 percent of total energy use.

With four billion tonnes of CO2 a year, the EU generates 14 percent of the 27 billion tonnes that escape into the atmosphere each year.

The United States is the biggest polluter with 5.8 billion tonnes, followed by China with 5.1 billion tonnes.

The EU hopes that it can rally other major polluters behind its approach.

"I think the most important issue for Copenhagen in terms of preparation is to have the Americans on board and afterwards the biggest emerging economies China, India, and Brazil," Barroso said.

"We have to find a consensus with the developing countries."

Barroso said that aides would head to Washington this week to meet their US counterparts.

US President Barack Obama has raised hopes in Europe that he will be more receptive to Europe's arguments than his predecessor, declaring in his inaugural address that the United States will "roll back the specter of a warming planet."