The European Commission will produce a report of ‘what went wrong' at the Copenhagen climate summit to help the EU reflect on its international climate strategy.
Environment ministers meeting in Brussels today asked the Commission to come up with a report for their next meeting, in Seville on 15-17 January.
The Copenhagen talks ended in bitter disappointment for Europe, with the US declining to make the emission-reduction pledges that the EU had hoped for, while China blocked a target to slash industrialised countries' emissions by 80% by the middle of the century.
The Copenhagen accord was “a disaster” and “a really great failure that we have to learn from”, Andreas Carlgren, Sweden's environment minister and chair of today's meeting, said.
Today's discussion was more about mutual consolation than working out what to do next. “It was obvious that ministers broadly expressed their disappointment with Copenhagen, which didn't match their expectations or the ambitions of the EU,” said Carlgren in his summing-up of the two-and-a-half hour discussion.
The Seville meeting could be an important moment for the EU to look at its negotiating strategy, ahead of a key UN deadline at the end of January. Before 1 February all industrialised countries will formally submit emission-reduction targets, while major developing countries will set out their efforts to reduce emissions.
Despite the fact that the US stymied EU ambitions, EU ministers continue to hope that the US will put a better offer on the table in just over one month's time.
“Expectations and pressure on the US have [been] raised after Copenhagen,” said Carlgren, noting that the Copenhagen accord fulfilled some of the US's most important demands, such as inclusion of developing countries in an international climate agreement, and more transparency from China.
He also warned against putting sanctions on goods from heavy-polluting countries outside the EU. The row over cross-border measures – tariffs or other requirements on non-EU producers – flared up in 2008 when the EU debated its climate and energy laws, but trade-liberal countries and Commission departments succeeded in quashing so-called 'border adjustment measures'.
If the EU still thinks it is possible to strike a better deal on climate change, it should avoid over-use of such measures, Carlgren said. This is a “decisive moment” where the EU has to decide if it works towards a global agreement or opts for a more fragmented approach, he said.
This map shows us how a 4 degree increase in temperature would affect our planet. A pretty exhaustive analysis.
Here it is ladies and gentlemen, the much awaited first version of the Copenhagen Draft. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, just found it and decided to share it with you. Comments coming soon.
AFTER long days of discussions, disagreements, threats to leave and horse-trading the Copenhagen climate talks are set to end on Friday December 18th. Around 100 world leaders are scheduled to arrive in the Danish capital for the last days of the event, when they should put their seals of approval on any agreement that has been thrashed out on emissions reductions and other measures to mitigate global warming. Although it is accepted that a legally binding deal cannot be struck, a political agreement is expected that might make way for a legal one next year.
