Europe weighs price of unity on climate, energy policy

(PARIS) - European environment ministers on Friday wrapped up a two-day meeting that exposed an East-West divide within the EU over how to slash carbon pollution across the 27-nation bloc by 2020.

At an informal meeting outside Paris, the ministers agreed to help the European Union's poorer members, mostly in central and eastern Europe, hit the target of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent compared with 1990 levels.

They also agreed that the plan should include clear commitments for deepening this cut to 30 percent to encourage a similar reduction by other industrialised powers.

"Our strong agreement is to reach an agreement on climate and energy hopefully by the end of this year," said Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren.

He added: "We know that there are problems to be solved for some of the member states."

The European Commission's action plan for cutting greenhouse gases already includes a mechanism for compensating the eastern European nations that remain hugely dependent on indigenous coal, Russian gas and Soviet-era nuclear plants.

The EU's richest nations have agreed to redistribute 10 percent of the income generated by the auction of post-2012 pollution permits under Europe's emissions trading system.

A group of seven nations that were former Soviet satellites have accepted the principle, but say the funds will not be enough.

Poland has called for 20 percent of the revenue, to compensate for what it describes as its own reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions since 1990.

European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said he was pleased that "the environmental integrity" of the package put forward by the EU's executive had remained intact in the Paris meeting.

"There was agreement... that we should not water it down any way, either intentionally or unintentionally," he said.

Europe has taken the lead role in curbing greenhouse-gas pollution that stokes climate change. It championed the UN's Kyoto Protocol after that pact was nearly destroyed by a US walkout in 2001 and last year promised to deepen its 2020 cuts to 30 percent if other rich economies followed suit.

Other difficult areas besetting the so-called climate and energy package include "carbon leakage," or the threat that high-polluting EU industries relocate to countries with lower restrictions, and measures to curb pollution by the transport sector.

The environment ministers lunched with EU energy ministers, meeting separately on Friday and Saturday to discuss specific aspects of the climate package.

The luncheon was addressed by Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN's Nobel-winning panel of climate scientists, who pleaded with Europe to show boldness at UN climate talks.

"If the EU does not lead, I am afraid that any attempt to bring about change and to manage the problem of climate change will collapse," said Pachauri.

"You will not be able to bring the US on board, North America, on board. You will not be able to bring on board other countries in the world as well," he also said.

Time was running out, Pachauri added.

The EU wants to limit the overall warming since pre-industrial times to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), a goal shared by many scientists.

To do this, said Pachauri, "we have a window of opportunity of only seven years because emissions will have to peak by 2015 and reduce after that. We cannot permit a longer delay."

But Pachauri also sounded a note of caution about the target figure itself, as evidence was mounting that climate change was accelerating faster than thought. Heatwaves and floods were increasing, and higher temperatures were having a far-reaching effect on glaciers and snowfall.

The UN talks are taking place under the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for a new global pact after 2012, when the current provisions of the Kyoto Protocol run out.

A major haggle is due to take place in Poznan, Poland, in December as the stepping stone towards final negotiations in Copenhagen at the end of 2009.

Informal meeting of European ministers for the environment