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CLIMATE CHANGE: EU Members Changing Their Mind

David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Oct 15 2008 (IPS) - Plans by the European Union to slash its greenhouse gas emissions by one-fifth encountered serious difficulties this week as some of the bloc’s governments deemed the measures too costly.

Although leaders from all of the EU’s 27 countries committed themselves last year to reducing the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) released by their economies by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, the turbulence that has beset the world economy in the interim has prompted some of them to rethink the objective. This became clear as a two-day summit – with an agenda dominated by environmental and financial issues – opened in Brussels Oct. 15.

France has stated that it wishes to finalise work on the contents of the EU’s ‘climate and energy package’, which sets out how the emission cuts should be implemented, before its six-month presidency of the Union concludes in December. But others are pressing for the entire programme to be renegotiated. Italy’s right-leaning government, which came to power earlier this year, has warned that reaching the EU’s targets could cost it up to 181 billion euros (246 billion dollars).

The part of the package most likely to be diluted relates to the emissions trading system (ETS). It places a limit on the amount of carbon dioxide that European firms can emit, and then requires them to obtain permits to pollute.

After energy-intensive industries such as steel, cement, aluminium, glass and paper warned that the scheme could force them to leave the EU for countries with lower ecological standards, France, Italy, Germany and Poland have recommended that such firms should be awarded permits free of charge.

Green activists are adamant that these permits should instead be auctioned and that the money collected be used to for environmental protection. The European Parliament recently argued that half of the programmes supported from these proceeds – estimated to be worth 50 billion euros per year – should be undertaken in poor countries, which, according to scientists, are bearing the brunt of extreme weather conditions.

Greenpeace argued that handing out permits for free would not be economically prudent. “Free allocations bring short-term savings to some polluting industries, but they increase the cost of CO2 reduction for the economy as a whole,” said Jorgo Riss, director of the group’s Brussels office. “They delay structural efficiency improvements in the economy and are therefore the wrong choice at a time when the EU should scale up its long-term competitiveness.”

He also urged the leaders not to allow their economic woes to undermine their pledge to address climate change. “In 2020, few people will remember the current financial crisis but their well-being and prosperity will be directly affected by the fundamental, long-term decisions that you are making now about the EU’s energy and climate package,” he wrote in a letter to the EU’s 27 governments.

Jeremy Hobbs, head of the anti-poverty organisation Oxfam, said it is vital that leaders heed calls for the revenue generated from emissions trading to be used for the benefit of poor countries. He argued, too, that the EU should restate that it is prepared to reduce its emissions to 30 percent below 1990 levels if it can convince other industrialised countries to do likewise as part of an international agreement. Such a commitment was made by EU governments in 2007.

“European Union leaders must at all costs resist the pressure from heavy industry to weaken its climate change policies,” said Hobbs. “The livelihoods of millions of poor people are at stake who are being hit first and hardest by climate change but are least responsible for it. The EU must seize this moment to be bold and ambitious and give a clear signal to industry and the rest of the world that it’s serious about investing in a green future. Anything less at this critical time would be myopic and weak.”

José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, has also exhorted the bloc’s governments not to abandon the green agenda. Watering down the commitments made last year would damage the EU’s credibility during international talks on framing a successor to the Kyoto agreement on reducing emissions, scheduled to take place in Poznan, Poland, this December and in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009.

“Saving the planet is not an after-dinner drink, a digestif you take or leave,” Barroso said. “Climate change does not disappear because of the financial crisis.”

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) recently published a study stating that reducing emissions would lead to major savings in the healthcare bills paid by EU governments. Striving towards a 30 percent reduction target could save the Union up to 25 billion euros per year by ensuring that there are fewer hospital admissions and less absenteeism from the workplace linked to respiratory complaints. The group maintains, too, that replacing fossil fuels, the primary source of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, with renewable energy can be a significant source of job creation.

“A strong European climate package will make Europe more resilient to future economic fluctuations, as it will reduce reliance on foreign energy supplies, create more sustainable jobs, and lead other countries to join forces to avoid dramatic consequences of climate change,” said WWF campaigner Delia Villagrasa.