In Short:
By setting greenhouse gas reduction targets of 15-30% by 2020 and 60-80% by 2050, environment ministers went much further than the Commission when discussing the EU's climate change policy post-2012.
Background:
The Commission presented its post-2012 strategy paper on 9 February 2005. In this communication, entitled "Winning the battle against global climate change", the Commission did not set any new targets, but concentrated on the challenge of bringing more countries on board (the US and Australia, but also developing countries such as China, Brazil and India), and to include more sectors (aviation and maritime transport) (see EurActiv 10 Febr. 2005) .
Issues:
The EU-25 ministers for the environment went beyond the commission's proposals by setting ambitious reduction targets: 15-30% reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2020 and 60-80% by 2050. Under the Kyoto Protocol, the EU had committed itself to reduce emissions by 8% between 2008-2012, compared to the 1990 baseline.
The Council, however, formulated this in a rather non-binding manner: "Without prejudging new approaches for differentiation between Parties in a future fair and flexible framework, the EU looks forward to exploring with other Parties possible strategies for achieving necessary emission reductions and believes that, in this context, reduction pathways by the group of developed countries in the order of 15-30% by 2020 and 60-80% by 2050 compared to the base line envisaged in the Kyoto Protocol should be considered," the text reads.
The ministers made clear that a global approach is needed which includes cooperation with big industrialised countries that have opted out of Kyoto, as well as with new emerging economic powers such as China and India.
The Council also invited the Commission to continue studies on costs and benefits (including of non-action) and to look at the competitiveness aspects of the new strategy.
Positions:
Greenpeace welcomed the Environment Council's decision. "Environment ministers have planted the seeds of hope for long-term climate leadership by the EU," said Mahi Sideridou of Greenpeace's European Unit.
There was no immediate business reaction, but one day before the Council meeting European industry federation UNICE had warned the environment ministers not to go it alone and not to set any targets and timetables "at this stage". "...unilateral EU absolute caps could lead to considerable carbon leakage and associated loss of investments to regions that are not taking similar actions," UNICE said in a press release on 9 March.
Latest & next steps:
The EU heads of state and government will discuss the post-2012 climate strategy during their Spring Council on 22-23 March.
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Links :
Official Documents:
- Council: Provisional minutes of the Environment Council (10 March 2005)
- Eur-Lex: Communication: "Winning the battle against global climate change" , COM(2005) 35 final (Febr. 2005) [FR] [DE]
- DG Environment: Action on climate change post-2012
EU Actors positions
- UNICE: Press release "UNICE urges EU ministers to follow global approach for climate change" (9 March 2005)
- Greenpeace: Press release "EU environment ministers lead the way to the Spring Summit" (10 March 2005)