Domestic and international climate action remains centre stage
By Jos Delbeke
Director-General, Climate Action, European Commission
Europe continues to lead the fight for a strong, legally binding, and truly global agreement to prevent climate change from reaching dangerous levels – levels that could be reached within the lifetimes of our children if urgent international action is not taken soon. The United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen last December made some progress towards such an agreement, but much less than we had hoped for. Pushing forward the international negotiations towards a global climate deal for the post-2012 era thus remains a top priority for the European Union. The Commission will be working closely with the Member States, and in particular the Belgian Presidency of the Council, to achieve a successful outcome of this year's UN climate conference, taking place in Cancún, Mexico, in November-December.
The EU would be ready to reach a legally binding deal in Cancún, but it looks as if some other key players will not. The absence of domestic climate legislation in the United States is a particular obstacle to progress in the international negotiations. If the US does not adopt legislation it is hard to imagine that China will be willing to bring its domestic action to limit greenhouse gas emissions into a global framework.
Given this situation there is broad international recognition that, instead of going for a 'big bang' solution as we did in Copenhagen, it makes more sense to move in steps towards a global agreement. The EU thus wants to see a Cancún outcome that provides a solid basis for reaching an international deal at the UN climate conference that will be held in South Africa at the end of 2011.
In practice, this means we need a set of action-oriented decisions in Cancún that both addresses key structural issues, such as the governance of climate finance, and opens the way for immediate collaboration with developing countries in areas like adaptation, technology and capacity-building using the almost $30 billion in 'fast-start' finance pledged by industrialised countries in Copenhagen. The EU is on track to deliver on its fast-start pledge of €2.4 billion per year over the period 2010-2012.
In parallel with the international negotiations, the Commission will be coming forward in the second half of the year with measures needed to implement the revision of the EU Emissions Trading System that was decided as part of the 2008 climate and energy package. These measures concern rules for the auctioning of emission allowances, which will become the main method of allocation from 2013, as well as a system for allocating free allowances to industry based on performance benchmarks.
At the same time, the Commission will be preparing the ground for decarbonising the EU economy in line with the vision of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth set out in our Europe 2020 strategy.
Europe needs to decarbonise to reach our long-term target, together with other developed countries, of cutting emissions by 80-95% by 2050. A reduction of this order by industrialised countries is essential to have a fair chance of reaching the goal of holding global warming to less than 2°C above the pre-industrial level. But we also need to decarbonise in order to maintain our competitiveness in the low-carbon technologies of the future, to safeguard jobs and to strengthen our energy security.
This makes climate change a huge business opportunity that Europe must seize. In this context, one of the key debates in the coming months will be over the options for moving beyond our 20% emissions reduction target for 2020. This is a political decision for the EU leaders to take when the timing and the conditions are right. At the same time the Commission will be doing the preparatory work needed to set out a pathway next year for the EU's transition to a low-carbon economy by mid-century, including milestones for 2030.
One specific initiative on which we are looking forward to progress in Council and the European Parliament during the Belgian presidency is our proposal to limit CO2 emissions from vans. Together with the similar legislation on cars adopted last year, this is an important measure to tackle emissions from road transport, which continue to rise. The regulation will help manufacturers serving the European market to become front-runners in low-carbon, fuel-efficient technologies – an opportunity that I hope European makers will be the first to grasp.