EU and US head for climate-change clash

The EU and the US are in dispute over how to address the issue of climate change at their forthcoming summit meeting on 30 April.

Germany, which holds the presidency of the EU, had planned that "a joint EU-US approach on climate change" should be one of the main results of the EU-US summit.

But after months of talks, diplomats from both sides of the Atlantic are still far from reaching a deal.

At a meeting of EU and US experts in Washington this week (26-27 March), the EU failed to overcome a US demand that the summit conclusions should link climate change with energy security.

EU diplomats have warned that failure to separate the debate on climate change from that of energy security will unbalance the EU-US summit and damage the EU’s efforts to tackle global warming.

"The Americans are not overly keen on a separate text on climate change," said one diplomat, speaking after the Washington meeting, "but this is a very important issue for the EU and we have to show leadership."

At their European Council of 8-9 March, EU leaders agreed that the EU should cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020, from 1990 levels. But they offered a cut of 30% if other developed countries made comparable reductions.

An EU diplomat said: "We had summit conclusions that made climate change a clear priority and we should reflect that in our meetings with third countries."

The EU had hoped that the EU-US summit would establish a three-pronged transatlantic approach to climate change. As discussed by EU member states over the past month, the joint EU-US approach would emphasise the need to limit global warming, with "fair contributions for developed and developing countries", encourage carbon trading and develop new technologies. The EU wants to see transatlantic commitments to limit global warming to 2°C, to expand and deepen carbon markets and to invest in clean technology projects. The EU also wants to develop joint standards for carbon capture, biofuels, clean technologies, energy efficiency appliances, buildings and power plants.

The US administration is arguing that new technologies are the best way of reducing carbon emissions and at the same time tackling energy dependency by improving energy efficiency. Writing in European Voice the US’ ambassador to the EU, C. Boyden Gray describes the issues as "flip sides of the same coin".

But EU diplomats accuse the US of focusing on technology in an attempt to avoid binding limits on emissions and the development of a cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide emissions. The US is arguing that fuel efficiency will help combat global warming and increase energy security.

The EU-US summit is seen as an important precursor to the G8 meeting of leaders from the industrialised nations on 6-8 June in Heiligendamm, Germany. The EU hopes that the G8 summit will support the idea of launching negotiations on a post-Kyoto emissions regime at the next round of international climate change talks in Bali in December.

That plan now looks to be in disarray, although US diplomats said that, with a month to go before the EU-US summit, there was still time for a deal to be done.

But Anders Wijkman, a Swedish centre-right MEP, said it would be difficult to reach a deal in time. "The US attitude has been regrettable," said Wijkman, "I don’t think there will be a change in policy until the new administration takes office." US presidential elections are scheduled for November 2008.

The EU and the US are in dispute over how to address the issue of climate change at their forthcoming summit meeting on 30 April.