By Brian Johnson - 2nd December 2005
The EU is well on the way to meeting its Kyoto targets for reducing greenhouse gases, according to new figures released by the European Commission on Thursday.
New projections reveal that the pre-enlargement EU 15 member states are expected to exceed their combined Kyoto reduction target and reduce emissions to 9.3 per cent below 1990 levels by 2010.
The EU 15’s reduction commitment under Kyoto is eight per cent below the 1990 baseline.
“The latest projections show that the EU has successfully transformed its commitment under Kyoto into policies and measures by which it will attain the emissions’ reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol,” said EU environment chief Stavros Dimas in a statement.
“And we have already reduced our emissions despite healthy economic growth,” added the Greek commissioner.
The new projections are significantly higher than actual reductions achieved so far. The most up to date figures for the EU 15 show that by 2003, greenhouse gas emissions had been reduced by 1.7 per cent.
But with a combination of existing policies, planned additional initiatives and by obtaining credits through Kyoto’s mechanisms that allow for emission-reducing projects in other countries, Brussels is confident it will achieve the 9.3 per cent target.
“But that does not mean we can be complacent,” said Dimas.
“We will need to fully implement the various emission reduction measures that we have signed up to under our climate change programme and make use of the Kyoto flexible mechanisms.”
For the combined EU 25 which has no collective Kyoto commitment, projections show a five per cent reduction will be achieved using current measures.
Again, however, implementing a similar range of additional measures is expected to bring that figure up to 11.3 per cent by 2010.
The commission said that more than 30 greenhouse gas reduction policies and measures had so far been introduced at EU level under the European Climate Change Programme, with additional initiatives to target aviation and road transport emissions in the pipeline.
The new projections should strengthen the EU’s hand at global climate change talks underway in Montreal.
Brussels is determined to show that its policy of mandatory emissions limits works, and should be the basis for negotiating a future post Kyoto, global climate change policy.
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