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European Parliament Sets Sights High for Cancún Climate Change Talks
By Rory Watson
The European Union is being urged to take the lead in the Cancún climate change negotiations opening on 29 November to regain the momentum after the setback at the previous international meeting in Copenhagen last December.
The message is being delivered by the European parliament’s environment committee in a detailed resolution covering all the items on the table that will be formally adopted by the full parliament on 25 November.
Jo Leinen, the German Christian Democrat who chairs the committee, acknowledges that a comprehensive worldwide treaty will not emerge from Cancún. But he maintains that “there could be a package of measures, and that would be a partial triumph.” This would provide the basis for further agreements at the subsequent negotiating session in South Africa next year.
In particular, the parliament is looking for the EU to implement quickly its pledge to make €2.3bn (£1.94bn; $3.1bn) available for climate protection measures in developing countries. It also wants the EU to show its readiness for a second commitment period for reducing climate gases after the expiry at the end of 2012 of the current Kyoto protocol.
Mr Leinen is pressing European negotiators to sign up to a firm target of a 30% reduction of carbon dioxide by 2020, instead of the 20% that has so far been agreed. “A 20% reduction will not be enough. Unless we have more ambition, we will miss the two degree target,” he warned. The EU’s core objective is to keep global temperature rises below 2°C above pre-industrial levels to avoid the anticipated impacts of climate change.
More specifically, the parliament would like to see agreement at Cancún on forestry protection, with a commitment to stop deforestation. Mr Leinen believes the goal is achievable since 193 countries adopted such a position at the recent biodiversity negotiations in Nagoya, Japan.
This should be accompanied, say members of the European parliament, by the transfer of environmentally friendly technologies to the 100 or so countries that don’t have the means to take the necessary action on their own.
Finally, the parliament believes that agreement should be reached on a control system for climate gases so that careful monitoring can accurately establish and report on the range and timescale of temperature rises and identify the effects of climate change regionally and locally.
The parliament will send a delegation to Cancún. Asked what its role would be, Mr Leinen replied: “We are a citizens’ chamber and reflect public opinion. We have a role to play as a watchdog to see whether promises are kept. We are definitely a driving force for a more ambitious goal in climate protection and can build bridges to other like minded partners.”
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