MEPs call for EU lead at Bali climate talks

STRASBOURG - MEPs have urged Brussels to take a ‘leading role’ at the upcoming UN climate change conference in Bali.

In a resolution adopted by parliament’s temporary committee on climate change on Tuesday, MEPs called on Brussels to ensure that the December talks in Indonesia mark the first step in creating a post-2012 framework to tackle climate change.

The resolution, drafted by Green MEP Satu Hassi, advocates that EU negotiators push for binding emissions targets for all industrialised countries, a global ‘cap and trade’ system and a 50 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The EU must confirm its “leading role” at Bali the committee members stressed.

The resolution also calls for any future climate change regime to come under the auspices of the UN’s framework on climate change and on the Kyoto protocol.

However the parliament’s demands are unlikely to find favour across the Atlantic, where Washington remains staunchly opposed to mandatory emission cuts, and, what it calls a ‘one-size-fits-all global system.

Italian liberal deputy Vittorio Prodi also failed in his attempt to include in the resolution a ‘one person, one emission’ amendment covering emissions permits.

“The Kyoto protocol comes to a close in 2012, when it will be replaced. We have to replace those measures under Kyoto which didn’t work,” said Prodi, a vice president of the temporary committee.

“I and many other feel that this is a proposal that could prove decisive in trying to achieve the consensus we need…the principle of one person, one emission could be used as a basis for establishing emission level limits for 2012”.

“The proposal was not accepted, probably due to a misunderstanding. It was presented in a hurried way, and so people said they thought it was a lovely idea, but impossible to implement. Well I too think it is a lovely idea, and that it is in fact very possible to implement,” said the Italian MEP.

“We will carry on the fight and we will make sure we take up arms on this issue again,” he added.

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