By Martin Banks - 14th January 2009
The EU cannot achieve its energy and climate objectives alone
Barroso's top climate change advisor, Maria de Graça Carvalho
A key advisor to commission president José Manuel Barroso has said it is crucial that international agreement is reached in Copenhagen this year on emissions reductions.
About 190 countries are trying to craft a broader climate treaty by December to replace the Kyoto protocol that binds wealthy nations to emissions targets between 2008 and 2012.
Rich and poor countries remain divided over funds for clean energy investment and technology transfer, as well as new targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions blamed for causing droughts, floods and disease.
Speaking in parliament, Maria de Graça Carvalho, a member of the bureau of European policy advisers, said the main aim of the EU’s recently agreed energy and climate package is for a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 30 per cent by 2020.
In order to show its “commitment” to tackling global warming, she pointed out that the EU has proposed a unilateral 20 per cent reduction of emissions in the absence of an international agreement.
“However, the truth is that the EU cannot achieve its energy and climate objectives alone,” said Carvalho, a principal adviser to Barroso on climate change issues.
“Europe’s emissions are just 14 per cent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, and falling. But before 2020 developing countries will outstrip the industrialised world in terms of emissions.
“We would like 2009 to be remembered as the year in which we built the global political consensus on energy and climate change.”
She said the commission had urged the US and other developed countries to accept the notion of mandatory reduction targets for developed countries.
The Portuguese official also said the commission will shortly issue a new communication outlining its strategy for reaching a deal at the meeting in Copenhagen in December.
A key staging post on the way to such an agreement, she said, was the UN climate change conference in the Polish city of Poznan last December.
However, she warned, “One strong message coming out of Poznan is that there will be no new climate change regime if no credible financial package for developing countries is put on the table.”
Carvalho was one of the keynote speakers at a conference in parliament on electricity grid reliability.
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