22
Sep 2008 - Climate Action Network Europe,
Friends of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace
and WWF have heavily criticized the outcome
of today's vote by the European Parliament’s
industry (ITRE) committee on ‘effort sharing’(1).
Environmentalists slammed
the committee's opinion that countries should
be able to buy their way out of real emission
cuts in the EU by being able to purchase
an even greater quantity of offsets than
originally proposed by the European Commission.
The ITRE committee vote would allow up to
80% of emission reductions to be met by
the purchase of external offset credits.
This would mean that by 2020, member states’
emissions from non-industrial sectors(2)
would only be reduced by a feeble 2%, compared
to 2005 levels.
The ITRE committee also
supported measures which could prevent an
EU 30% emission reduction target from being
automatically adopted once an international
agreement on climate change has been reached,
and failed to introduce any improved measures
to ensure that countries are penalised if
they do not meet their targets.
Reacting to the vote
Climate Action Network Europe, Friends of
the Earth Europe, Greenpeace and WWF said:
“Should these types of amendments become
law, the EU would cease to be seen as a
credible climate partner internationally.
European politicians should take meaningful
action to avoid dangerous climate change,
such as strict annual targets enforced by
financial penalties.”
“MEPs need to be reminded
that in March 2007, European heads of state
agreed to back a 30% EU reduction target
by 2020 in the framework of an international
agreement on climate change. The industry
committee would like to make a move in this
direction very difficult, if not impossible.”
Environmental groups
call on the Parliament’s environment committee,
the leading committee on the issue, to overturn
the industry committee vote(3). They also
pointed to the inconsistency between this
vote and the commitment by the European
Parliament’s climate change committee to
tackle dangerous climate change by supporting
measures to keep global average temperature
increase below 2 degrees Celsius.
Keeping global warming
below 2 degrees Celsius is the focus of
the new ‘Time to Lead’ campaign – www.timetolead.eu
– from Climate Action Network Europe, Friends
of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace and WWF.
Notes
1. This decision sets emission targets for
2020 for the 27 member states (for all sectors
not covered by the EU's emissions trading).
2. Emissions by European industry are covered
in the EU emissions trading directive.
3. The industry committee passed the compromise
amendment increasing the amount of external
credits that Member States can use to off-set
their emissions reductions by a single vote.
+ More
Chinese central bank
and WWF outline greener banking roadmap
24 Sep 2008 - Chinese
commercial banks should establish environmental
reporting, assessment, management, and risk
evaluation systems to promote sustainable
development in China, according to a new
report today from WWF and the People’s Bank
of China (PBoC), the country’s financial
and monetary regulatory agency.
Towards Sustainable
Development: Reform and (the) Future of
China’s Banking Industry from WWF and the
central bank’s Financial Research Institute
is the first high-level report on sustainable
development in China’s banking sector.
The report stresses
the growing importance of commercial banks
in China’s effort to realize its national
sustainable development strategy and provides
specific recommendations on environmental
policy changes.
It draws lessons from
international standards in the finance industry
such as Equator Principles (EPs), as well
as the experience of international banks
including Citi, Deutsch Bank and HSBC. Although
there are a few national pioneers and many
Chinese commercial banks have established
their own environmental policies, the report
concludes that most have failed to take
concrete action.
While the banking industry
is beginning to pay attention to sustainable
development, the report calls on governments,
non-government organizations, and the finance
sector to drive commercial banks’ commitment
into action.
Over the past few years,
PBoC has been driving sustainable banking
through its monetary, interest rate and
credit policies.
In 2007, the central
bank consolidated an environmental database
of Chinese companies, requiring commercial
banks to review and weigh each applicant’s
environmental history before granting their
credit applications.
In the same year, PBoC
along with the Ministry of Environmental
Protection (MEP) and the China Banking and
Regulatory Commission (CBRC) established
a green credit system. This regulated the
availability of credit to companies in violation
of environmental laws.
"People’s Bank
of China is moving along the track set by
international experience, while taking into
account China’s own development strategies,"
said WWF-China’s Country Representative
Dermot O’Gorman.
"WWF will
continue to learn from, and provide our
expertise to, China’s central bank to promote
sustainable development and green banking
policies in China."
