EU confirms CO2 emissions-cut targets for UN deadline
Earthtimes | 27 Jan 2010
Brussels - The European Union Wednesday confirmed its plans to cut its CO2 emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels, with an option to raise the target to 30 per cent if other international partners make comparable efforts. The long-forecast decision had to be confirmed by February 1 - a deadline for nations to communicate their states emission targets to the United Nations.
At a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels, it was established that the bloc will stick to its "unilateral objective of 20 per cent and a conditional objective of 30 per cent," diplomatic sources said.
They added that the EU's official notification to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) will explain "in a footnote" that the bloc is willing to go further, but only if other industrialized nations follow its lead.
The EU's offer - an established policy of the bloc since 2008 - failed to move other world leaders at December's Copenhagen summit on climate. The US pledge, for example, amounted to a 3 to 4 per cent cut when using the 1990 baseline adopted by the EU.
In view of the summit's failure, EU members such as Italy and Poland successfully resisted calls to raise the bloc's target unconditionally to 30 per cent, in the hope that the US and other countries such as China would be urged to act.
At Copenhagen, no agreement was concluded on global emissions cuts. Instead, nations were asked to submit their voluntary pledges to the UNFCC by the end of January.
Hopes for a global deal on limiting climate change are now pinned on the next UN climate change conference, due to start in Mexico on November 29.
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