07
Oct 2008 - Brussels, 7 October 2008 – MEPs
voting in the European Parliament’s environment
committee today have confirmed the European
Commission’s proposed answer to climate
change, but have lacked the ambition to
go further, said Climate Action Network
Europe (CAN Europe), Greenpeace, WWF and
Friends of the Earth Europe (FoE Europe).
The committee voted
this morning on a review of the emissions
trading scheme and ‘effort sharing’ (which
allocates each country its share of emission
reductions in sectors not covered by the
carbon market). The climate package hot
potato will now be handed to EU environment
ministers, who will be under pressure to
reach a stronger agreement by the end of
2008.
Overall emission reduction
targets
Tomas Wyns, CAN Europe’s ETS senior policy
officer, said: “The Parliament resisted
attempts to block the move from a 20% to
a 30% emission reduction by 2020 in the
event of an international agreement. Keeping
the 30% target alive sends an encouraging
signal to our international partners in
the run-up to Poznan and Copenhagen. All
eyes now are on Europe’s environment ministers.
The ball is now in their court. Will they
show the climate commitment needed by developed
countries to make an international deal
possible by 2009?”
More subsidies to coal
Joris den Blanken, Greenpeace EU climate
and energy director, said: “MEPs have supported
a half-hearted response to the challenge
of climate change.” The Parliament voted
to give CO2 credits worth €10 billion to
carbon capture projects. “We won’t put the
coal age behind us if we give carbon capture
and storage a blank cheque. Carbon capture
is an expensive gamble that gives coal a
lifeline when what we should be doing is
phasing out fossil fuels, switching to renewables
and improving efficiency,” said den Blanken.
Forest credits
The environment committee also signaled
they would be willing to accept the inflow
of forest offset credits in the emissions
trading scheme, contrary to the Commission’s
recommendations. “If companies start trading
in forest credits, the price of carbon could
crash. Most importantly, the EU will have
to assume responsibility for the negative
impacts of questionable forest offset projects
on human rights and biodiversity,” said
den Blanken.
Shying away from domestic
responsibilities
Delia Villagrasa, senior advisor at WWF,
said: "Science tells us that developed
countries should reduce their emissions
by 25-40%. But as a result of the environment
committee vote, countries and industries
can buy their way out of their required
emissions reductions by offsetting about
a third of their effort, buying external
credits, but without a guarantee that such
offsets comply with solid environmental
and social criteria.
Industries, except for
the power sector, have been largely exempted
from the polluter pays principle at the
beginning, but move to full auctioning in
2020. It is clear that the EU is so far
only partway down the road to being world
leader against climate change."
Effort sharing
Sonja Meister, climate campaigner at FoE
Europe, said: “Despite crucial improvements
today, Europe’s politicians continue to
fail to make the overall commitments consistent
with avoiding the worst consequences of
climate change.” The environment committee
voted for strong measures including financial
penalties to make countries meet their emission
reduction targets. "Parliamentarians
agreed that the EU needs a climate policy
with teeth to make sure member states meet
their targets year-on-year. The time is
over when countries simply ignore their
emission reduction targets. But unfortunately
MEPs have shied away from showing real leadership
by not asking countries to do enough in
the first place.”
Helping developing countries
Regarding help for developing countries
to mitigate and adapt to climate change,
the committee voted for binding support
from the EU and to earmark half the revenue
raised from auctioning emissions permits
to industry. “MEPs took a momentous step
forward by voting to make support for developing
countries, including setting aside huge
sums of money, a central piece of the package.
With this commitment Europe would finally
start to fulfil its historical obligations
for having caused climate change.”
Delia Villagrasa, Senior Advisor at WWF
+ More
One step closer to emissions
limits for power stations in Europe
07 Oct 2008 - Brussels,
Belgium - The European Parliament environment
committee this afternoon voted to support
an emissions limit of 500 grammes CO2 per
Kilowatt-hour on all new and large coal-fired
power stations from 2015. This will prevent
conventional and polluting coal plants from
being built.
But seven years is too
long to wait for the climate and the limit
will not cover old power stations which
will be allowed to continue polluting.
However, this decision
sends a strong signal to the European Council
that the EU Emissions Trading Scheme is
not enough to drive investment in low carbon
energy generation. Robust regulatory measures
are also desperately needed.
“Coal already accounts
for 20% of the EU’s CO2 pollution. An Emissions
Performance Standard is essential, particularly
if you consider that 50 new coal-fired power
plants are planned across Europe over the
next few years without any mandatory provision
for them to capture and store the emissions.”
said Delia Villagrasa, Senior Advisor to
WWF.
“WWF supports the Emissions
Performance Standard because it is a technology
neutral mechanism. It gives investors the
opportunity to finance whatever is deemed
reliable and effective to comply with the
target, such as renewables or carbon capture
and storage. The emissions limit is a crucial
step to avoid a return to dirty coal in
the EU, to combat climate change effectively
and to support clean power,” she added.
Today’s decision will
have to survive tight negotiations between
the Parliament and Council of Ministers,
which are currently discussing the “EU climate
and energy package”. WWF calls on the Council
of Ministers to extend the pollution limit
to all existing power stations.
The emissions limit
was voted under the directive on carbon
capture and storage, which is part of the
“climate and energy package”.
Today the parliamentary
committee also voted on the review of the
EU Emissions Trading Scheme and on the Effort
Sharing directive. See a joint reaction
by WWF, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth
Europe and Climate Action Network Europe
Delia Villagrasa, Senior Advisor to WWF
