By Martin Banks - 7th December 2011
The commission is condemning the EU to failure
Chris Davies
Senior British MEP Chris Davies has predicted that "no binding" international agreements will be reached at the UN climate change talks in Durban.
The ALDE deputy, parliament's rapporteur on the commission's energy roadmap 2050, said that failure to increase the EU's CO2 reduction targets is currently the main stumbling block to an agreement.
He said, "The Chinese regime doesn't want to do anything that will curb the country's economic growth but they know that climate change is as big a problem for them as it is for everyone else.
"China invests half its GDP in low-carbon technologies and developments. In response, we should raise our ambitions and make firm commitments to improve energy efficiency.
"If we don't improve our 2020 target from a 20 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions to 30 per cent, the commission is condemning the EU to failure and allowing Asian countries to steal a march on us."
His comments come amid concerns that number of EU initiatives designed to reduce CO2 emissions, such as the emissions trading system (ETS) and carbon capture and storage (CCS), are failing.
Davies called for parliament to vote for the withdrawing of the CO2 permit supply within ETS in an attempt to prop up carbon prices which have plummeted in recent years.
He said, "Too many European Union allowances (EUAs) permits have been handed out so the 'cap' has not capped anything and the price has collapsed.
"The huge surplus of allowances now held by companies, together with anticipated further improvements in energy efficiency, means that there will be no significant recovery in carbon prices unless reforms are made."
