Sommaire: "Nairobi: prospects for the future" - Speech by EU Commissioner Dimas (30 November 2006: Brussels)
Speech by Stavros Dimas, Member of the European Commission, responsible for Environment, "Nairobi: prospects for the future", European Voice Comment Forum debate on climate change, Brussels
Mr/Madam Chairman,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning/afternoon, and thank you to European Voice for inviting me to speak here today.
Climate change threatens to transform our world and to undermine the stability and prosperity of our societies. For the European Commission, beating this challenge is an absolute priority.
The European Union is committed to achieving our Kyoto Protocol emission targets, and by leading the way we are determined to ensure that the international community takes decisive further action to cut global emissions after 2012, when the Kyoto targets expire.
ETS/NAPS
Yesterday the Commission underlined our commitment once again by taking a series of tough but necessary decisions on the number of emission allowances that will be available under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme between 2008 and 2012.
Many of you will know that the Emissions Trading Scheme is the flagship of the European Union's strategy to meet our Kyoto targets, and beyond.
It is the biggest international scheme in the world and it already covers almost half of the EU's CO2 emissions. It is enabling more than 10,000 industrial installations to cut their emissions cost-effectively. And our scheme is driving the rapid expansion of the global carbon market - which in turn is getting more and more countries and companies involved in the business of reducing emissions.
The Commission is the guardian of the scheme's integrity and credibility. We have to ensure that Member States do not allocate more emission allowances than their industries really need. If we were to let that happen there would be no incentive for companies to reduce their emissions, and there would not be the scarcity of allowances that the market needs in order to function properly.
National plans for allocating emission allowances have to comply with 12 criteria set out in the Emissions Trading Directive. Not the least of these requirements is that a national plan must be consistent with the Member State meeting its Kyoto target.
It is the Commission's task to ensure these criteria are met. We are doing so rigorously but fairly.
In clearing the first 10 national allocation plans for the next trading period yesterday, the Commission had to require a reduction in emission allowances in nine of them. Taken together the reductions required amount to around 7% compared with what Member States had proposed and with the level of actual emissions last year.
These cuts are essential to put all Member States on track to meet their Kyoto targets.
Our decisions are a strong and clear signal of the Commission's commitment to ensuring the emissions trading scheme delivers its full potential as the cornerstone of our strategy to comply with Kyoto.
They will support a robust carbon price both within the scheme and in the wider global carbon market. This helps to drive innovation in the clean technologies we need to move to the low-carbon economy of the future.
Ladies and gentlemen,
International action/Nairobi
The EU is leading by example but we cannot win the battle against climate change alone. Our emissions are just 14% of the worldwide total and falling. This is a global challenge that needs a global solution.
At the UN climate change conference in Nairobi earlier this month we reached decisions that I believe give us a solid basis for progress at the international level.
Firstly, we succeeded in taking concrete steps to help African and other developing countries cope with the enormous challenges that climate change poses for us all.
The strong decisions we took to support developing countries efforts' to adapt to climate change are especially welcome and significant.
While we are all going to have to adapt to climate change in order to reduce its adverse impacts, developing countries need the most help with adaptation since they are the most vulnerable. The severe flooding that has affected almost 2 million people in East Africa since the conference is just the latest tragic example of this vulnerability.
Nairobi also took important initiatives to help increase the number of projects carried out through the Clean Development Mechanism in sub-Saharan Africa and other poorer regions. The Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund proposed by the Commission last month is an important contribution to this, and it generated considerable enthusiasm at the conference.
The second major challenge for Nairobi was to move forward the crucial discussions that have begun on the further global action that will be needed after 2012.
Though absolutely critical for our future, this is a subject which outside the EU was all but taboo until a year ago, when we managed to get agreement at the Montreal conference to launch global talks.
Nairobi represented only the second round of discussions in what is still a young process, so it was never realistic to expect major breakthroughs at this early stage. Nevertheless we achieved encouraging progress.
The most important success was the agreement among parties to the Kyoto Protocol on a comprehensive work plan for our discussions on further commitments by developed country parties. This is a significant step towards shaping a regime for future action.
Under this work plan, the potential for emission reductions will be analysed, the policies needed to achieve them will be assessed, and eventually, we hope, new targets will be set. I expect the 4th assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which will be published over the next few months, to have an important influence on this work.
The other future action 'track' set up in Montreal is the two-year dialogue among parties to the UN climate convention, which of course includes countries like the United States and Australia which have not ratified Kyoto.
In Nairobi we had the second of four workshops under the convention track, focusing this time on sustainable development and market instruments. The Commission would have liked to see more of a real dialogue, and I hope that this can be improved for the next workshop.
The good news is that in Nairobi we also agreed on two other important future-related agenda items.
After difficult negotiations with developing countries, we managed to get agreement that there will be a comprehensive review of the Protocol in 2008. We will be using this to push for a number of improvements that would make post-2012 action more effective.
The second item is Russia's very interesting proposal to allow Kyoto parties to take on emission commitments voluntarily. This is going to be discussed at a special seminar during the inter-sessional meetings next May, and then taken up at next year's conference.
Together, all these tracks provide the basis for building a global consensus on the way forward.
It is now essential that we make the most of this and shift the talks into higher gear. They need to reflect the sense of urgency that has been steadily growing, not least since the Stern Review reinforced the economic arguments for decisive and early further action.
We know that global emissions need to be cut by around 50% by the middle of this century if we are to have a chance of keeping climate change within tolerable limits - that is, if we are to hold the global average temperature rise to no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
It may take time before all concerned accept this reality, and time is a luxury we don't have. But by the end of the conference I sensed that a shift in attitudes was already starting - that people were beginning to realise that this is the road we have to take if we are serious about tackling climate change.
Now it is vital that the EU steps up its leadership and comes forward with concrete new ideas to take the debate on further action to the next level and give it the necessary momentum.
Communication on post 2012
We will be doing just that in just over a month, when we will issue a new Communication exploring the domestic and international policy options for achieving significant reductions in global emissions over the next few decades.
The Communication will come out in January at the same time as the Commission's much-awaited energy strategy package.
This means we have a real opportunity to develop an integrated energy and climate policy.
A credible energy package is vital for the EU's negotiating position for post-2012, because it will contain measures that take us through to 2020 or later - in other words well into the next commitment periods.
The Communication will provide the basis for a discussion in the EU that will define our future climate policy as well as our international negotiating position. It thus represents a crucial step in the process towards a post-2012 solution.
We expect both the Environment Council in February and the spring meeting of the European Council in March to act on the Communication and agree an EU position on further steps to tackle climate change internally and internationally.
The Communcation will be the first of several important climate change initiatives next year. Among other things we also intend to complete the review of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, to issue a Green Paper on adaptation to climate change, and to develop a regulatory framework to encourage the environmentally safe use of carbon capture and storage technology.
Conclusion
Mr/Madam Chairman, Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude.
The Commission's decisions on the first set of national allocation plans have underlined our commitment to Kyoto and to a strong Emissions Trading Scheme as the cornerstone of our strategy for cutting emissions.
This month's Nairobi conference achieved much to help developing countries cope with climate change and has given us a solid basis for taking forward the discussions on future action.
Now we need to accelerate these discussions to reflect the urgency of the situation and to ensure there will be no gap between the first and second commitment periods.
In Nairobi Kofi Annan appealed for political courage and leadership to address climate change. So far the European Union has been alone in showing this. Over the coming months the EU will need to step up its leadership, but I also sense a promising shift in attitudes among some of our partners.
Thank you.
| Haut |
Etats Membres de l'Union Européenne
Alertes par e-mail
Envoyer par e-mail
Imprimer cette page