|
›
EU leaders set tight schedule for climate change deal |
 |
The 27 EU head of states have agreed to push forward an ambitious climate change package to be adopted latest in spring 2009. Meanwhile, an EU-wide survey has shown that global warming remains the main environmental concern of Europeans.
|
2008-03-17
|
One year after EU head of states had agreed at their spring meeting to ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets, the main challenge at this year’s summit was to deliver. Meeting in Brussels on 13-14 March, the 27 leaders thus reconfirmed their commitment to reduce EU-wide emissions by 20% by 2020 from 1990 levels, and agreed to a tight timeline for its final approval. In a bid to find consensus on a post-2012 agreement, they concluded that finalizing concrete measures under the climate change and energy package by year-end and adopting it latest early-2009 would be vital to remain at the right pace for next year’s global negotiations for a post-Kyoto deal. With a major international meeting on climate change scheduled for Copenhagen in November 2009, the EU is now under pressure to quickly agree internally on how to tackle GHG emissions before pushing other major emitters, such as China or India, to follow suit.
|
But the summit showed that EU Member States still need to iron out a number of differences before they can present a united front at Copenhagen. While confirming the 20-20 target, the head of states did not specify how CO2 reduction efforts would be shared among EU countries, and how they would affect the competitiveness of certain industries. Environmental groups and members of the European Parliament’s Green Party criticized the summit’s outcomes as insufficient and called for a stronger focus on jobs and export opportunities created by environmental innovations.
EU citizens worried about climate change
|
|
|
For a clear majority of Europeans (57%) climate change is the environmental issue they are most worried about, and an overwhelming 96% feel that environmental protection is important. This is the result of the latest “Eurobarometer” survey, published just before the EU summit, that had asked citizens in all 27 EU Member States about their attitudes towards the environment. The findings also show that two-thirds of Europeans would like to see more EU-level action in the environmental field, and more than 80% see harmonized European environmental legislation as necessary. As to whether environmental protection is an obstacle to favourable economic performance, most EU citizens deny that, seeing it rather as an incentive to innovate (63%). As a result, 75% of respondents are now ready to buy more expensive “green” goods.
|
More information:
› EU Summit, 13-14 March - Conclusions
› Eurobarometer survey, March 2008 - Report
› Read the article: EU Ministers back climate change deal & CO2 car strategy
|
