By Emily Smith - 21st November 2003
Europeans must learn to use their cars less or global targets for reducing climate change will never be met, according to Margot Wallström.
Speaking at a breakfast briefing in Brussels on Friday, the environment commissioner warned the biggest threat to the Kyoto protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions was Europe’s increasing dependence on cars.
“We have to reduce car use in cities, otherwise we will not succeed”, she said.
“The energy efficiency of cars has been improved, but this is countered by traffic growth.”
Transport, said the commissioner, is “the most problematic area” when it come to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and “we have to be bolder in how we proceed”.
The Kyoto agreement requires reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions to eight per cent of their 1990 levels by 2012.
But several countries are dragging their feet over signing up.
Wallström said she was “disappointed” with Russia’s reluctance to ratify Kyoto.
“We are not asking Russia to ratify to do us a favour. Climate change will affect Russia too.”
And she added that it was “difficult to accept the USA is still not part of Kyoto”.
“But I still believe the US will come back to the international negotiating table, one way of another.”
The USA produces almost 25 per cent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, but has only four per cent of the world's population.
Without Russia or the USA, Kyoto will not go into force.
It needs the ratification of at least 55 countries representing at least 55 per cent of global emissions at 1990 level.
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