Commission fails to deliver on greenhouse gases

By Anna McLauchlin

Date: 10/02/05

The European Commission has not set any post-Kyoto greenhouse gas emission reduction targets despite the specific request of the EU heads of state and government last year.

The European Council in March 2004 asked the Commission to carry out a cost- benefit study of various emission reduction scenarios as well as to work out a long-term strategy, including targets, before the 2005 Spring Council.

According to the study published on Wednesday (9 February), the cost of mitigating climate change would vary between 0.2% and 0.5% of gross domestic product by 2025 depending on the policies adopted and on their success.

It recommends continued use of the emissions trading scheme, further reductions in the transport and aviation sectors, investing more in emissions-cutting technology and better dialogue with other large nations to improve the global fight against the earth's warming.

But the Commission said that it was "too early" to consider targets and that the priority should be to build international support for the fight against global warming.

Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas defended the decision. "We don't want to create problems in our negotiations," he insisted. "At a certain moment of course we will have targets."

But it would be difficult to set those targets simply according to scientific predictions, he said. The study reiterates that global emissions reductions of at least 15% will be needed by 2050 to avoid the earth's temperature rising higher than 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

Getting the US on board, as well as large developing nations like China and India would be paramount to the future of global warming, Dimas said. But Dimas did not meet with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit to Brussels on Wednesday. "This issue is for a higher level," he said, adding that climate change would be on the agenda when US President George W. Bush visits Brussels next week (22 February).

Dimas rejected suggestions that the Commission was backing away from its leadership role on climate change because of the costs involved or the futility of continuing without the support of other nations. There is as yet no international agreement on post-2012 climate change action.

Green groups said that the Commission had not gone far enough. "It is time European governments make brave decisions and establish a new EU target of at least 30% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2020," said Stephan Singer, head of European climate policy at the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).

In a study on post-2012 policies on climate change published on 9 February 2005, the European Commission came to the conclusion that the cost of mitigating climate change would vary between 0.2% and 0.5% of gross domestic product by 2025 depending on the policies adopted and on their success. It recommended continued use of the emissions trading scheme, further reductions in the transport and aviation sectors, investing more in emissions-cutting technology and better dialogue with other large nations to improve the global fight against the earth's warming. The European Commission did not recommend any concrete targets related to emissions reduction. The European Council in March 2004 asked the Commission to carry out a cost-benefit study of various emission reduction scenarios as well as to work out a long-term strategy, including targets, before the 2005 Spring Council.