Senior MEP urges EU to 'push for ambitious goals' at climate talks

By Martin Banks - 15th December 2009

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The head of parliament's delegation to the UN climate talks in Denmark says the EU must "push for ambitious goals" to tackle global warming.

German Socialist deputy Jo Leinen stressed that the delegation will push for ambitious goals for CO2 reduction by 2020 as well as for sufficient funding for a worldwide climate protection policy after 2013.

"This week sees the start of the final sprint for a worldwide Climate agreement in Copenhagen", said Leinen, who chairs parliament's environment, public health and food safety committee.

The EU has already brought forward firm figures for CO2-reduction and 'fast-start' financial resources to help developing countries like Brazil, India and South Africa cope with climate change.

So far, the tortuous talks have been bogged down as negotiators from the near-200 nations taking part struggling to reach agreement. Earlier this week, the talks were temporarily suspended after a walk-out by delegates from Africa.

Leinen said, "It is now necessary that the world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters - the USA and China - come out of their cover and propose negotiable offers for an agreement.

"The ping-pong-game between the two superpowers has to stop."

He said US president Barack Obama "has to offer more" than a 4 per cent reduction (with 1990 as reference year).

"China should take Brazil as an example and further limit its greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

Meanwhile, Sonja Meister, climate campaign coordinator for Friends of the Earth Europe, said the chances of reaching a "just and fair" international agreement this week are "extremely slim."

Her pessimistic outlook comes after EU leaders last week agreed not to increase the 20 per cent emission reduction target by 2020, compared to 1990 levels, which they set in 2007.

They kept their conditional offer of a 30 per cent target for 2020 subject to other parties’ commitments.

She said both targets would be achieved with a "huge element" of offsetting "which is an excuse for developed countries not to reduce emissions at the scale and speed science says is needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change."

"To stand a reasonable chance of staying below the crucial two degrees Celsius global warming threshold, Europe and other developed countries which are historically responsible for causing climate change must cut their emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2020 without offsetting," she said.