Following the debate which took place during the sitting
of 24 November 2009, the European Parliament adopted by 516 votes to 92, with
70 abstentions, a resolution tabled by the Committee on Environment, Public
Health and Food Safety, on the EU strategy for the Copenhagen Conference on
Climate Change (COP 15).
The resolution emphasises that by the end of this year in
Copenhagen, the Parties need to reach a legally binding agreement on
industrialised-country mitigation targets and financing and to establish a
formal process to achieve a legally binding comprehensive climate
agreement in the first few months of 2010, coming into force on 1 January
2013. It also stresses
that, in order to secure continuing commitments after the Kyoto Protocol
first commitment period expires, it is vital for the negotiations on a
post-2012 agreement in Copenhagen to be concluded, according to MEPs.
Parliament urges the EU to continue to develop an
external climate policy and to speak with one voice to maintain its leading
role in the negotiations at COP 15.
The main
issues dealt with in this resolution are as follows:
Reduction
commitments
- the
international agreement should be based on the principle of a ‘common
but differentiated responsibility’, with the industrialised countries
taking the lead in reducing their domestic emissions;
- the
international agreement should ensure collective reductions in
greenhouse gas emissions in the developed countries at the high end of
the 25-40 % range for 2020 compared to 1990 levels;
- the
resolution recalls that a long-term reduction target should be set for
the EU and the other developed countries of at least 80 % by 2050
compared to 1990 levels. Given their economic weight, that China, India
and Brazil should commit themselves to targets similar to those of the industrialised
countries;
- in
accordance with the Bali Action Plan, take nationally appropriate
mitigation actions in the context of sustainable development, supported
and enabled, in a measurable, reportable and verifiable manner, by
technology, financing and capacity-building from developed countries,
having due regard, in technology transfers, to the protection of
industrial property rights and to the special needs of the least
developed countries;
- the
international agreement should also ensure that developing countries as
a group limit the growth of their emissions to 15 to 30 % below
‘business as usual’ in order to ensure that the 2ºC objective is
achieved;
- the
Copenhagen agreement should bind the parties to mandatory reductions and
provide for sanctions at international level for non-compliance. The
resolution calls for regular reviews in the agreement every five years;
- the EU should
clarify under which conditions it would increase its reduction commitment,
taking into account the fact that the latest scientific recommendations
call for a commitment to a 40 % reduction in emissions. The EU should invite
the members of the COP 15 to develop a common vision for the year 2050
and beyond.
Financing
- according to
MEPs, an agreement in Copenhagen could provide the necessary stimulus
for a ‘Sustainable New Deal’ boosting sustainable social and
economic growth, promoting environmentally sustainable technologies,
renewable energy and energy efficiency, reducing energy consumption and
securing new jobs and social cohesion in both developed and developing
countries;
- developed
countries should provide sufficient, sustainable and predictable
financial and technical support to the developing countries to allow
them to commit themselves to the reduction of their greenhouse gas
emissions, to adapt to the consequences of climate change and to reduce
emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, as well as to
enhance capacity-building in order to comply with obligations under the
future international agreement on climate change;
- commitments
to provide for the required predictable financial support for climate
change mitigation and adaptation in the context of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) must be new and additional
to ODA and independent from annual budgetary procedures in the Member States.
The resolution recalls that the resources should be distributed not as
concessional loans, but as grants;
- the EU is
called upon to commit at least to the Commission’s estimate of overall
financing of EUR 5-7 billion annually for the period 2010-2012;
- the
collective contribution by the EU towards developing countries'
mitigation efforts and adaptation needs should not be less than EUR
30 000 million per annum by 2020, a figure that may increase as new
knowledge is acquired concerning the severity of climate change and the
scale of its costs;
- the
international community is invited to increase significantly its
financial support for adaptation to and mitigation of climate change for
developing countries by exploring other innovative financial mechanisms
(for example debt-for-nature swaps);
- a
substantial part of the revenues generated by the auctioning of
certificates in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), including
auctioning for aviation and maritime transport, should be earmarked for
enabling developing countries to fight and adapt to climate change;
- developed
countries should envisage earmarking a percentage of their GDP for the
creation of a cooperation fund for the realisation of clean energy
technologies, independently of existing development aid funds.
Cooperation
with developing countries
- the EU and
its Member States should strengthen their existing climate partnerships with
developing countries, and to enter into new partnerships where they do
not currently exist, providing significantly increased financial support
for technology development and transfer, agreement on intellectual
property rights and institutional capacity-building;
- the Commission
and the Member States should: (i) build the necessary links between
climate change and the MDGs; (ii) increase substantially the budget for
the Global
Climate Change Alliance (GCCA). The Commission is urged to ensure
that the GCCA becomes a clearing house for adaptation funding in
developing countries, thus avoiding the creation of new bilateral EU
initiatives.
Energy and
energy efficiency
- there is an urgent
need to improve energy efficiency on a global scale and to increase the
share of renewable energy resources;
- an
international shift towards a low-carbon economy will consider nuclear energy
as an important part of the energy mix in the medium term. The issue of
safety and security of the nuclear fuel cycle must be addressed in an appropriate
manner at international level in order to ensure the highest possible
level of safety;
- EU Member
States are urged to step up their ambition on the energy efficiency
package, notably on the Energy
Performance of Buildings Directive recast which is currently being
discussed, to enable a dynamic and cohesive agreement with the Council
to be reached.
Adaptation: stressing the historical responsibility of developed countries
for irreversible climate change, Parliament calls on the EU and its Member
States:
- to assist
developing countries in capacity building in order to adapt to climate
change and to provide sufficient technological support for those
countries most affected by a changing environment;
- to enhance action
to support the urgent implementation of adaptation actions within the EU
in order to save resources for future international action.
Technological
cooperation and research
- the
Copenhagen agreement should provide for Technology Action Programmes for
key adaptation and mitigation technologies to provide support throughout
the entire technology chain with objectives such as to considerably
increase financing for mitigation and adaptation-related research,
development and demonstration (RD&D);
- developed
countries should invest more in research on novel and advanced
technologies for sustainable and energy-efficient production processes;
considers it essential to improve funding for international cooperation
on climate change within the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).
A global
carbon market
- although
market solutions, including the development of a global carbon market,
through ‘cap and trade’ mechanisms or taxation schemes in developed
countries, are not the solution for developing countries in the near
future, this must remain the long-term goal for all negotiations;
- a
functioning global carbon market is essential for the EU economy. The
resolution stresses the need for a comprehensive international post-2012
agreement stipulating comparable efforts to be made by other developed
countries in order to overcome the risk of carbon leakage;
- the Kyoto
Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is deemed a possible way to
enable developing countries to participate in the carbon market and to
provide them with modern and efficient technologies. The resolution underlines,
however, that the use of offsets to meet emission reduction targets by
developed countries cannot be counted as part of the responsibility of
developing countries to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions in an international
agreement on climate change;
- stringent
project quality standards must be part of future offsetting mechanisms,
in order to prevent developed countries taking away the low-cost
reduction options from developing countries, and to guarantee the high
standard of such projects, with reliable, verifiable and real additional
emission reductions that also support sustainable development in such
countries. The CDM and Joint Implementation (JI) should be reformed,
taking into account those project quality standards.
Land use
change, deforestation, forest and natural resources degradation
- the EU and
the Member States are urged to recognise the need to preserve forests
and to integrate this aspect into an international agreement;
- significant
financial support, as well as technical and administrative assistance,
must be provided to developing countries to halt gross tropical
deforestation by 2020 at the latest. Parliament invites the EU and
its Member States to provide funding for the period 2010-2012 for early
action in developing countries and supports the Commission's proposal to
create a Global Forest Carbon Mechanism (GFCM) under the UNFCCC
framework, based on a permanent-financing scheme;
- Member
States should confirm their commitment to halting global deforestation
and forest and land degradation, as well as desertification, by earmarking
a significant part of the auctioning revenues from the EU ETS to reduce deforestation
and forest degradation in developing countries;
- the EU is
called upon to promote strong social and environmental standards for
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD);
- practices
followed in several sectors, including water management, ecosystem
preservation, agricultural production, soil conditions, land use change,
health, food security and disaster risk, have led to the causation and
aggravation of climate change and that these dimensions should be included
in the Copenhagen agreement.
Aviation
and maritime transport
·
MEPs insist that – in the light of the failure
of the negotiations involving the International Civil Aviation Organisation
(ICAO) and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) – international
aviation and shipping be incorporated into an agreement under the UNFCCC;
·
MEPs urge that international agreements in the
aviation and maritime sectors set the same binding targets as for other
industry sectors; urges further that in a global framework at least 50 % of
the allowances in this area be auctioned.
Lastly,
Parliament believes that the EU delegation plays an important role in these
negotiations on climate change, and therefore finds it unacceptable that the
Members of the European Parliament that are part of that delegation were
unable to attend the EU coordination meetings at the previous Conference of
the Parties. It expects the European Parliament participants to have access
to such meetings in Copenhagen on the basis of observer status at least, with
or without speaking rights.