By Martin Banks - 14th October 2009
But I have to say that we now need to step up the momentum
Laurence Graff
A senior commission official has said that efforts to forge a new agreement on climate change at the upcoming summit in Copenhagen are "on track".
However, Laurence Graff told this website that world leaders "still need to show the political will, wisdom and determination" to reach a deal on a successor to the Kyoto protocol.
Speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, Graff, a senior member of EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas' cabinet, said that "reasonable progress" had been made in the ongoing high-level negotiations in the run-up to the UN summit in December.
"But I have to say that we now need to step up the momentum and find a solution to the remaining issues," she said.
She added that these include reaching agreed targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, spelling out what is expected from developing countries and, perhaps most crucially, how reaching CO2 targets will be financed.
Dimas is due to take part in a further round of pre-summit talks in Bangkok in the first week of November.
Graff said she was "optimistic" that a deal would be reached in Copenhagen, adding, "All the analysis has been done and from an economic and technical point of view we know what is required so I am hopeful we can reach agreement."
Earlier, Graff had taken part in a debate, organised by the Brussels-based think tank The Centre, on progress towards a global deal on climate change.
Taking part in the same debate was American Jane Leggett, an energy and environment specialist, who said she shares Graff's optimistic outlook of a "productive" deal in Denmark.
"However, there is room for several agreements," Leggett told this website. "As important as targets are, I am hoping that the summit will come up with something broader than just an agreed set of targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions."
Leggett, of the Congressional Research Service, added, "We need an agreement that will truly set us on the path to tackling global warming cooperatively and effectively."
She also said there was "no scientific dispute" linking climate change to human behaviour.
Leggett said this was despite the fact that "a lot of people in the US still believe that the climatic changes we are witnessing all over the world are due to nature and not man".
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.