By Martin Banks - 27th October 2009
We need more than a mere political statement from Copenhagen
Caroline Lucas
A group of MEPs have urged the EU to "step up to the plate" on climate issues at this week's summit in Brussels of EU heads of state.
The MEPs, all members of parliament's Greens group said the summit should commit to an "unequivocal and non-conditional" CO2 reduction target of 30 per cent, "with a promise to go beyond this."
The deputies also called for EU leaders to agree to provide €30bn per year by 2020 to help developing countries meet the cost of meeting emission reduction targets.
UK Greens MEP Caroline Lucas told a news conference in the parliament on Tuesday that there was "deep concern" that a legally-binding deal on CO2 reduction targets would not be agreed at the UN summit in Copenhagen in December.
She also warned that "gathering defeatism" was having a detrimental impact on expectations for the crunch December meeting.
"We need more than a mere political statement from Copenhagen. The very minimum should be a legally-binding framework which can form the basis for the next agreement," she said.
"The EU has a key leadership role to play here but for this to be met it has to dramatically raise its game and step up to the plate.
"We want this week's summit to produce a bold and ambitious negotiating position for the EU at Copenhagen. Unfortunately what we have seen so far from the EU is not climate leadership but climate cowardice."
She added, "The EU continues to 'copy and paste' the two and a half year old statement to increase the EU's emissions target to a 30 per cent reduction by 2020 from 1990 levels if other industrialised nations commit to comparable cuts.
"This hazy non-commitment is no longer sufficient."
Her comments were echoed by Finnish party colleague Satu Hassi who said that current talks aimed at thrashing out a successor to the Kyoto protocol in Copenhagen were currently deadlocked.
"The EU can help break the deadlock by stepping up its own commitments on cutting greenhouse gases.
"If Europe's leaders truly want the EU to play a proactive role in pushing forward the UN climate talks, they must commit to an unequivocal reduction target of 30 per cent."
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