EU climate policies without an international framework By Stephen Tindale ★ The Durban summit on climate change takes place in November-December 2011. Only the EU can inject impetus into the international negotiations. ★ Whatever the outcome of the Durban discussions, the EU should give priority to agreeing its draft energy efficiency directive, which will be good for human health and energy security as well as climate protection. ★ The EU should strengthen the Emissions Trading System (ETS) by setting a floor price for the carbon permits. ★ The EU should introduce border tax adjustments for goods imported from countries without a carbon price. The revenue should be returned to the country of origin, for use on clean energy projects, but only if that country agrees to an international carbon reduction target. The next UN climate summit will take place in Durban, South Africa from 28th November to 9th December. This follows the unsuccessful 2009 Copenhagen summit and the partially-successful one in Cancun in 2010. The EU has the opportunity to lead the world in climate negotiations by strengthening its climate and energy policies, and by offering bilateral financial deals to developing countries which accept obligations under the UN climate framework.
The EU should provide leadership in Durban by stressing that climate policies can strengthen, not hinder, economic recovery. It should outline how its own climate policies will be made more effective. And it should offer countries resisting UN targets on climate change strong economic and financial incentives to accept such targets.
The Durban summit will not lead to final agreement on new international legally-binding commitments. Differences between negotiating parties, on how deep emissions reductions should be and who should foot the bill, remain too great. At best the summit can lay the groundwork for a new legal agreement. But progress will only be possible with greater leadership, and only the EU can provide such leadership. US politics make leadership by the Obama administration impossible. China, India and other emerging global powers regard international climate negotiations with deep suspicion – part of attempts by ‘the West’ to keep them in their place. And Durban will be overshadowed by the ongoing global economic crisis.
1. Continuing to promote the Kyoto Protocol framework;
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The EU line at Durban should be based on four main points:
2. Continuing to offer an increase in its 2020 emissions reduction target from 20 per cent to 30 per cent, if other countries commit to ambitious targets; 3. On energy efficiency and renewables, outlining how the existing 20 per cent targets will be met, notably by stressing that the draft energy efficiency directive will be top of the EU’s agenda in 2012; 4. A statement that the EU’s ETS will be strengthened with a Europe-wide floor price, with border tax adjustments to protect energy-intensive European
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