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Praise, catcalls greet EU emissions deal at UN talks

24 October 2014, 15:07 CET
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(BONN) - A deal to reduce European carbon emissions earned a mixed response at UN climate talks Friday, where some said it would give the troubled process a push while others said it fell short.

Sealed at a hard-fought European Union (EU) summit in Brussels, the deal was praised by UN climate chief Christiana Figueres as providing "valuable momentum" towards a global pact in 2015.

EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said the contribution was "ambitious" and a signal for other countries to follow suit.

But Claudia Salermo, representing Venezuela as a member of the "Like-Minded Developing Countries" bloc at the ongoing talks in Bonn, said the EU goals were "too little and too late".

"It is a gesture, but it is not sufficient," said Seyni Nafo, a spokesman for African countries.

The 28-nation bloc agreed to cut its emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030 over 1990 levels, compared to a 20-percent reduction by 2020.

It also adopted 27 percent targets for renewable energy supply and efficiency gains.

Europe accounts for about 10 percent of global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil fuels and cement production, according to figures by the scientific consortium the Global Carbon Project (GCP).

That places it far behind China (28 percent) and the United States (14 percent).

But it has traditionally played a vanguard role in the UN climate talks, which is why its latest position is so closely scrutinised.

"The EU's offer falls far short of promoting the transformation that we need," Maeve McLynn, a climate policy expert at advocacy group Climate Action Network, told AFP.

"Despite signalling to other parties, especially other big developed countries, that time is of the essence in the international climate negotiations, the targets on the table are still not adequate."

"It sets a floor in a sense. It would be hard for the United states or Japan to say they shouldn't try to do at least as much," added Alden Meyer of the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists thinktank.

"But it is not adequate, it is not a beacon to hold up as a shining example."

The 2015 talks are supposed to unlock a global agreement that would take effect in 2020.

It would roll back greenhouse-gas emissions to limit warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.

Scientists say that on current trends, Earth could experience twice that rise -- a recipe for potentially catastrophic damage to the climate system.

Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said the EU deal "provides valuable momentum towards the Paris 2015 global climate agreement."

"It opens the door to greater ambition by all countries," she added, and it meant Europe would be ready to meet a deadline for countries to submit their climate mitigation goals in the first quarter of next year.

Added Hedegaard: "We have sent a strong signal to other big economies and all other countries: we have done our homework, now we urge you to follow Europe's example."

- Most ambitious? -

Others questioned, however, EU president Herman Van Rompuy's description of this as the world's most ambitious climate energy policy -- pointing to commitments by some small island nations, for example, to switch fully to renewable energy by 2025.

"Many AOSIS (Alliance of Small Island States) members have committed to even bolder action than that, despite our tremendous vulnerability and negligible emissions," the group's spokesman Ronald Jumeau said in Bonn.

"We will be looking for a more ambitious offer from the EU in Paris."

Assad Rehman, for green group the Friends of the Earth, said the EU's 40 percent mitigation target amounted to far less in practice, given that it had already met its 2020 objective to curb emissions by 20 percent from 1990.

"For the next 18 years, its emissions cuts will slow down to a crawl. You don't need to be a genius to do the maths," he said.

European Council (23 and 24 October 2014) Conclusions on 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework


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