Climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard claims that economic crisis has made it cheaper to move to higher target
David Adam and Ian Traynor guardian.co.uk 26 May 10;
The European commission today reopened the debate on whether Europe should volunteer to cut its carbon emissions further, but stopped short of recommending such a move.
Connie Hedegaard, climate commissioner, said the recession would make it cheaper than expected for the continent to hit its target to reduce carbon pollution 20% by 2020. Raising the target to 30% by 2020 would also cost less than first calculated.
Hedegaard said: "Whether to increase our reduction target for 2020 from 20% to 30% is a political decision for the EU leaders to take when the timing and the conditions are right. Obviously, the immediate political priority is to handle the [financial] crisis. But as we exit the crisis, the commission has now provided input for a fact-based discussion. The decision is not for now, but I hope that our analysis will inspire debate in the member states on the way forward."
The analysis had been widely trailed, but was altered to play down the merits of raising the targets after late objections from some countries. Early drafts said the 20% target was not enough; this was changed to the target being a first step. Today's communique also emphasises that the "conditions are not right" for such a move.
The document says it will cost €48bn a year to hit the 20% target, down from €70bn when the goal was set two years ago. The 30% target is estimated to cost €81bn a year. At present, the EU only plans to introduce the 30% target if other countries pledge similar cuts as part of a new global climate deal.
The commission's costs-benefits analysis of whether to shift to more ambitious carbon cutting targets presages a summer of infighting and intense lobbying across the EU. Sources in Brussels said Hedegaard is keen to commit to more ambitious European targets, but is being pressured by colleagues in the commission to hedge her bets.
Germany has been the strongest advocate of moving to a 30% target only in the context of a global agreement and of retaining the option as a bargaining chip in the climate change negotiations. The Italians and the east European members of the EU also oppose committing to 30% cuts.
The new coalition government in the UK, by contrast, emphasises the EU's pioneering role on climate change and would support a unilateral pledge on deeper cuts.
"We will push for the EU to demonstrate leadership by supporting an increase in the EU emissions reduction target to 30% by 2020," said Chris Huhne, the energy and climate change secretary.
Today's analysis will go before EU environment ministers next month and possibly to a summit of EU government leaders also in June. The government chiefs would need to agree for the 30% cuts to become EU policy ahead of further international talks on global warming in December in Cancun, Mexico.
EU cools rhetoric on deeper unilateral emissions cuts
Yahoo News 26 May 10;
BRUSSELS (AFP) – The European Commission, under pressure from industry and member states, on Wednesday cooled its enthusiasm for the EU to unilaterally commit to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent.
"Are conditions right? Would it make sense at this moment? The answer would be no," admitted EU Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, presenting a much-awaited climate paper.
A day earlier Germany, France and others had voiced opposition to the main thrust of the paper, that the EU should consider unilaterally deepening its pledged emissions cuts from 20 percent, as currently agreed, to 30 percent by 2020.
The Brussels backpedalling from the 30 percent goal was most evident in a few very late changes to its published paper.
"The purpose of this communication is not to decide now to move to a 30 percent target: the conditions set are clearly not met," the final version insists in a sentence absent from an earlier draft seen by AFP last week.
At her press conference the EU commissioner said any decision to increase the reduction target "is a political decision for the EU leaders to take when the timing and the conditions are right... The decision is not for now."
"Back to realism," was how the relieved European steel industry body Eurofer greeted Hedegaard's comments, as Europe struggles out of recession.
Many capitals will happily put such considerations on the back burner as they struggle with the more pressing task of pulling their economies out of a debt stranglehold.
The message from German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle and France's Industry Minister Christian Estrosi on Tuesday was very clear.
"We have shared our concerns at the commission's proposal," said Estrosi.
"The European Union is ready to adopt the 30 percent figure if other major economies make comparable undertakings," the French minister added.
The EU's conditional 30 percent offer was put on the table, but not reciprocated by other major industrialised powers, at last December's world climate talks in Copenhagen. Currently Europe has agreed only to cut emissions by 20 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels.
The commission, which hopes EU heads of state and government will consider its proposals at their summit on June 17, stresses in its paper the "advantage of acting earlier rather than later."
Such a move would bring "significant long-term benefits for Europe's competitiveness, by maintaining a strong position in a rapidly growing global market for low-carbon technologies."
The commission estimates in its paper that the total cost of such a move would be some 81 billion euros (100 billion dollars), just 11 billion more than had originally been costed in for the agreed 20 percent emissions cut.
Environmental group Greenpeace seized on the EU figures that suggested that making deeper cuts would be not only cheaper than previously thought but also bring benefits to the environment and the economy alike.
"I think it is important that we have facts on the table and not scare-mongering from industry," a Greenpeace spokesman told AFP.
Britain is leading EU nations which want the deeper cuts in greenhouse gases.
"Global climate change is the biggest challenge the world faces.... That's why we will push for the EU to demonstrate leadership by supporting an increase in the EU emissions reduction target to 30 percent by 2020," said Britain's Secretary of State for Climate Change Chris Huhne.
Hedegaard's problems were not just external.
Her boss, EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, "doesn't want any problems with the member states," and told her so, one European diplomat said.
However Hedegaard warned that Europe was losing its edge in the development of new green technologies, with China and the US moving quicker.
