Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-03-09-Speech-2-297"
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"en.20100309.22.2-297"2
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"Madam President, this is the first time I have spoken before this House. I am glad that, less than four weeks after I took office, I can today present to you a communication on international climate change policy post Copenhagen – a communication that the Commission adopted in its meeting today.
Lastly, Europe needs to undertake outreach in order to promote support for the UN process and rebuild confidence that a global deal is possible. We need both to get a better understanding of where our partners stand on key issues and to explain what the EU requires from a global deal. The Commission will undertake outreach in close contact with the Council and the Council Presidency. I will be holding talks in Washington and Mexico this month and plan to visit, among others, India, the Maldives, China and Japan in April.
We would also like to encourage you, the European Parliament, to contribute by engaging with your fellow parliamentarians around the world. I have already met some representatives of your parliamentary delegations with major third countries and will meet others soon in order to discuss how we could join our efforts and reach out together and how the Commission can assist you in this important task.
The Commission’s communication sets out a strategy to help maintain the momentum of global efforts to tackle climate change expressed by the growing support for the Copenhagen Accord. EU leadership in this process will be absolutely vital for success. I hope we can count on Parliament’s support.
The communication is entitled ‘Acting now to reinvigorate global action and climate change’, and that is exactly what we aim to do. Naturally, in drafting the communication, we have taken full account of Parliament’s resolution of 10 February on the outcome of COP 15.
Copenhagen was a much smaller step forward than the European Union had wanted but, nonetheless, it was a step forward. One hundred and nine countries – industrialised and developing nations alike which are collectively responsible for more than 80% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions – have now officially included their emission reduction targets and actions in the Accord. In other words, the opportunity is there for us to build on this determination and help channel it into international action. We need to seize this chance to help maintain momentum towards the robust and legally binding global climate agreement for the post-2012 period which, of course, remains our objective.
The Commission’s starting point is that the EU must continue to show leadership. We believe that the most convincing way Europe can do so is by taking tangible and determined action domestically to become the most climate-friendly region in the world. We must do this as part of the EU 2020 strategy put forward last week. And let me say this loud and clear: it is in Europe’s own interest. How is that? Well, because it will – if we do it intelligently – enhance our competitiveness, strengthen our energy security and stimulate greener economic growth and innovation, thus creating new jobs. The Commission will therefore now undertake work to outline a pathway up to 2050 for the European Union’s transition to becoming a low-carbon economy.
This will involve reducing our emissions by 80% to 95% in 2050, as already agreed, and – as this House is well aware – the EU is committed to reducing its emissions to at least 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 and to scaling up this reduction to 30% if the conditions are right. I fully share the wish expressed by this Parliament that the EU should move beyond the 20% target. We need to bring our reduction more closely into line with what the science tells us is necessary in order to meet the Copenhagen Accord’s objective of keeping global warming below two degrees. As you also stated in your resolution, the crisis has made it easier to achieve the targets. If today we want to be as ambitious as we were prepared to be when we adopted the Climate and Energy Package back in 2007 and 2008, we would then have to go beyond the 20%. I am therefore also pleased to announce that the Commission will prepare, before the European Council in June, an analysis of which practical policies would be required to implement a 30% emission reduction by 2020. The Commission will also engage in developing an analysis of milestones on our pathway to 2050, including the necessary scenarios of the ambition level for 2030. This will require a need to set out appropriate strategies for the key emitting sectors, consistent with the EU 2020 strategy. In line with the deadline agreed in the ETS Directive, the Commission will also set out its analysis of the situation regarding energy intensive industries in the event of carbon leakage.
In parallel with this work, the EU must start implementing the Copenhagen Accord. This means building a robust and transparent international accounting framework for countries’ emissions and performance. It also means swiftly mobilising the EUR 7.2 billion in fast-start finance for developing countries that Europe has committed to for the period 2010 to 2012. This is particularly important for our credibility, as well as contributing to securing long-term finance. The Commission is ready to help ensure the EU’s assistance is well coordinated.
Finally, this communication proposes a road map for the next steps in the UN process, to be agreed in Bonn this spring when the negotiations restart. The technical meetings in Bonn need to begin the process of integrating the political guidance provided by the Copenhagen Accord into the UN negotiating text and addressing the outstanding gaps. Most importantly, I think it is very important to see what can be specific deliverables for Cancún. Bringing the developed country targets and developing country actions submitted under the Accord, as well as the political guidance on MRV, into the formal UN negotiation process will be crucial, but also decisions on issues which were neglected in the Accord, such as the evolution of the international carbon market, reducing emissions from international aviation and maritime through ICAO and EIMO, agriculture and other things. In the formal negotiations, there was actually substantial progress made in Copenhagen on the adaptation framework, technology framework, forestry, that could also be among the specific deliverables for Mexico.
Nobody would be happier than me if Cancún also delivered a legally binding global deal and if the legal question was also solved there – and do not be mistaken, the European Union is ready. However, we need to recognise that remaining differences between parties may delay agreement on this until next year. Therefore, we have to manage expectations carefully. I think all of you know that high expectations for Mexico without specific deliverables implies a very high risk of killing this process in the end. So for all of us to whom it is very important to get an international deal, I also think it is very important to pursue this stepwise approach and to try to do whatever we can to ensure that the world gets a legally binding deal before 2012.
Finally, a few words on environmental integrity. Environmental integrity must be our watchwords in the negotiations and I know this is a concern Parliament shares. Therefore, the shortcomings of the Kyoto Protocol have to be addressed. By this I mean the limited number of countries it covers – corresponding to only 30% of today’s emissions – and the serious weaknesses it contains such as the accounting rules for forestry emissions and the handling of surplus national emission rights from the period 2008 to 2012, which were also highlighted in your February resolution."@en1
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