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November 28, 2005: Climate change: Seize the day

International

Climate change: Seize the day

Published: Mon, 28 Nov 2005

EU Commissioner Stavros Dimas hopes the international community can work together to combat climate change at this week’s Montreal talks

In Montreal, the international community has the opportunity to take an important step towards controlling global warming.

We must seize it. The EU, and many of our partners, are determined that the conference should agree to launch negotiations on global action for limiting climate change after 2012, when the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol expires.

We will have to work on the three themes that have been proposed by the chairman, Canadian environment minister Stéphane Dion: implementation of existing commitments in the UN framework convention and the Kyoto Protocol; improvement of existing mechanisms for addressing climate change such as the Kyoto flexible mechanisms; and innovation on the structure of the future international cooperation beyond 2012.

Firstly, Montreal will celebrate the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol. The final step will be the formal adoption of the Marrakech Accords, setting out the rules and procedures necessary for the protocol’s implementation, including the Kyoto compliance mechanism. We need to remain vigilant and avoid re-opening any discussions already closed at Marrakech.

The EU will also support Canada’s efforts to reach agreement on a five-year work programme on adaptation, as agreed in COP10. The programme should help all parties to assess regional and local climate impacts. This is particularly important for developing countries.

I believe that enhancing the international understanding of dangerous impacts of climate change and of the limits of adaptation will also raise the political will to enter into negotiations on future action.

Turning to the improvement of the current UN climate change cooperation, strengthening the Clean Development Mechanism will be high on the agenda in Montreal.

CDM, at the moment, is not functioning as smoothly as could be expected. I believe that these problems must be addressed swiftly, by reforming the CDM Executive Board’s working arrangement.

We want to see as many CDM projects as possible, because CDM makes an important contribution to sustainable development in the host countries and to technology transfer.

The most controversial issue at Montreal will undoubtedly be the discussion on future international climate cooperation.

The EU wants to see the Montreal meeting launch international discussions on the shape of the future international climate change regime.

This should be the start of a meaningful process that covers all parties of the UN framework convention.

A number of developing and developed countries, including the US, remain hesitant about engaging in debate.

To my mind, it goes without saying that all developed countries must take on commitments in the future that are at least comparable to those envisaged under Kyoto.

In view of its share of global greenhouse gas emissions, I expect the US to engage fully and constructively in global action.

However, many developing countries still fear that climate change policies are a threat to their economic development.

In order to maintain our ambitions for Montreal and beyond, we need to demonstrate that curbing greenhouse gas emissions can go hand in hand with further economic growth and that acting now will avoid higher costs in the future.

We do not think that developing countries should, or indeed could, take on the same commitments as the industrialised countries.

Their per capita emissions are still a fraction of ours. But we can design a system with different types of participation, under which developing countries would take on commitments that are in line with their level of economic development, according to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

While we see a growing momentum as a result of the intense dialogue over the past few months, we need to stay realistic.

I have read in the media that some expect a full agreement in Montreal, including new targets and timetables. This is definitely not on the cards right now.

In Montreal, we need to start a more inclusive debate on future climate policies under the convention. COP11 president, Stéphane Dion, thinks he can rally sufficient momentum for a political declaration of ministers, including those that have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. He will most certainly have the EU’s support in this endeavour.

To make progress we need to focus on the five key elements of a future regime that the commission identified earlier this year: broadening participation to all major emitters; covering all sectors, notably aviation and maritime transport and gases; stimulating the development and deployment of new technologies; continuing the use of the market-based mechanisms such as emission trading; and introducing adaptation policies to counter the impacts of climate change.

Montreal will therefore be the beginning and not an end-point for the debate on future climate policies. Solutions will need to be found through intense international dialogue that will take place over the next few years.

We are now only a little more than 24 months before the Kyoto targets enter into force. The EU has shown its commitment to fight climate change. All obligations of the Climate Convention and the Kyoto Protocol have been transposed into binding EU legislation.

The European Climate Change Programme introduced a comprehensive package of policy measures to cut emissions. At the time, many of these measures were seen as very ambitious – but, now five years later, it is clear that the EU has delivered. The measures are now in place and are increasingly taking effect.

This is good – but it is not enough. Additional measures are needed to meet our Kyoto targets and, after 2012, even deeper cuts will be necessary.

In recognition of this, in October, the commission launched a second phase of the European Climate Change Programme which will review the current state of policies and prepare new measures to reduce emissions. New working groups will cover carbon capture and geological storage, CO2 emissions from transport vehicles, emissions from aviation and adaptation to the effects of climate change.

The Emissions Trading Scheme already covers almost half of the EU’s CO2 emissions. Emission trading is one of the main success stories of European integration.

It has broken new ground as the first international trading system and is the greatest ever in terms of economic coverage.

It marks a paradigm shift in European environmental policies, engaging the private sector in searching for the most cost-effective solutions to the global problem of climate change.

The decision that we will take, in 2006, on the allocations for the period 2008-2012 will be central to being able to deliver our Kyoto target.

At Montreal, the EU will re-assert its leadership on climate policy. It will do so with the aim of starting a process towards a future climate change regime that involves all major emitters.

The EU will also continue to deliver on its commitments by determined action at home.

The second Climate Change Programme will provide the framework for new measures to cut emissions. Climate change concerns us all. I call on all our partners, industrialised countries, emerging economies, industry, and society at large, to recognise the need for action and to join us in our efforts towards a low carbon future.

The international community has all the tools to fight climate change and there is a broad consensus about the type of measures necessary. Let us hope that Montreal will be remembered as the moment that the international community took up this gauntlet.

This article originally appeared in the November 28 edition of Parliament Magazine.

http://www.eupolitix.com/EN/News/200511/e1...