EP - Climate change

Council and Commission statements on climatic changes
Debate: 16.11.2004

The Council and Commission will make statements on climatic change in the light of the recent the recent signing by Russia of the Kyoto Protocol. This means that the Protocol could enter into force early next year.

The European Union (EU) is at the forefront of international efforts to combat climate change and has played a key role in the development of the two major treaties addressing the issue, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol.

The EU is also taking serious steps to address its own greenhouse gas emissions. In March 2000 the Commission launched the European Climate Change Programme (ECCP). The ECCP led to the adoption of a range of new policies and measures, among which the EU's emissions trading scheme, which will start its operation on 1 January 2005, will play a key role. As a result of the EU's and individual Member States actions, the latest monitoring data indicates that the European Union has delivered on its long-standing commitment to stabilise emissions of CO2 at the level of 1990 in the year 2000. The EU-15 is committed to deliver the collective 8% cut in emissions by 2008-2012 to which it signed up under the Kyoto Protocol. Equally the New Member States are determined to meet their individual targets under the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol is only a first step to address the serious threat of climate change. Further action must be taken after 2012, the end of the Kyoto Protocol's 'first commitment period'.

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