EU climate policy: EP sends strong message on EU climate policy ahead of European summit
PRESS RELEASE – Strasbourg, 11 March 2009
The European Parliament today adopted a resolution on the EU position for the post-2012 climate negotiations aimed at influencing EU leaders, who will decided on the EU negotiating position at next week’s summit (19-20 March). After the vote on the resolution, Finnish Green and vice-chair of the EP environment committee Satu Hassi said:
”It is time for the EU to step up to the plate in the international climate negotiations, after endless months of feet dragging. The resolution adopted by the parliament sends a strong message to EU leaders that they need to agree a clear and ambitious EU negotiating position for the international climate talks, when they meet at next week’s summit.
”MEPs are calling on the European Council to push for an international agreement that will deliver collective greenhouse gas emissions reductions from industrialised countries at the top of the range recommended by the UN IPCC (i.e. 25-40% reductions by 2020 based on 1990 levels) and for those reductions to be domestic. For the EU, this will mean committing to reductions of at least 40% in the context of an international deal with the vast majority of these reductions to be achieved in Europe – and not offset by purchasing credits from cheap emissions reduction projects in developing countries making the remaining reduction effort in those countries unattainable.
”In contrast to the environment and finance ministers who have dodged their responsibility, the resolution also calls for a robust EU position on financing under a global climate deal, reflecting our responsibility. MEPs have explicitly called for the EU to commit to contributing at least €30 billion annually by 2020 towards developing country climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. This will be an essential element of a post-2012 climate agreement and the EU position on this cannot be fudged.
”The buck has been passed from one ministerial meeting to the next but it must stop at the EU summit next week.”