EU presses China and India to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

European environment ministers urge developing countries to cut emissions by 15-30% under post-Kyoto climate change deal
David Gow in Brussels
guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday October 22 2008 13.40 BST

The EU is pressing emerging economies such as China and India to agree to cut their greenhouse gas emissions under the proposed new post-Kyoto agreement on climate change.
European environment ministers this week urged developing countries to cut their emissions by 15-30% below "business as usual" under any new global deal to take effect from 2013.
Emerging economies are not bound by the current Kyoto protocol targets on the grounds that global warming is the result of emissions from rich nations and they should be allowed to enjoy catch-up growth.
But the EU now says they should agree to reduce their emissions compared to what would be released under accelerated economic growth, which is 9% in China. That would not mean absolute cuts, as is required of developed nations under Kyoto.
Senior Brussels officials say emerging economies would be asked first to slow the growth of their emissions and gradually reduce them as their contribution to achieving a global 50% cut on 1990 levels by 2050.
The new EU policy has been adopted in the run-up to the United Nations conference on climate change that will take place in Poznan, Poland, in early December. This is due to prepare the way for the final UN conference in Copenhagen at the end of next year.
Senior European commission officials, pointing particularly to China, acknowledge evidence that emerging economies are already taking measures to reduce their emissions.
They say that the new post-2012 targets have received a favourable response from these countries in the run-up to the Poznan meeting: "They welcome the clarity about what they may be expected to achieve."
The EU move comes as its own ambitious plans to cut its emissions by at least 20% by 2020, through increased use of renewable energy and greater energy efficiency, are in disarray because of the impact of the global financial crisis.
Earlier this week, environment ministers failed to resolve the impasse about how to distribute the financial burden of reaching the targets, how to exempt energy-intensive industries such as steel and cement from competition from emerging economies through so-called carbon leakage and to what extent "green energy" projects supported outside the EU should count towards meeting individual countries' targets.