EU must lead the world on climate change

Martin Luther King would never have made the impact he did if he started his famous speech with the words: "I have a nightmare". It is hard to enthuse people about the need to combat climate change through fear.

By Roland RuddPublished: 9:30PM BST 11 Jul 2009

"If we don't act now, this is how terrible the world will be" is hardly a great rallying call for action. Yet there are reasons for optimism.
In the US, the world's greatest polluter, half the population do not believe in Darwin's theory of evolution. However, 70pc believe in climate change. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the first significant global challenge which is completely understood by the world. So the question is not how to persuade people for the need for action. It is how do we get the world to change in order to avoid the catastrophic level of climate change projected to occur as early as 2050?

The answer has to be through the European Union acting first. The Kyoto treaty, committing industrialised countries to reducing their collective emissions of greenhouse gases by more than 5pc (for the EU, the target is 8pc) below their 1990 levels, would never have been signed but for the EU determination to act as one body, with one negotiator.
We do not have to be too Panglossian about the EU to realise that it provides a crucial vision on how to tackle climate change. As John Gummer, the chairman of the Conservative Party's Quality of Life Policy Group, recently put it: "the very fact that the EU made Kyoto possible should fire us up to raise our game on climate change".
At the European Council last December, sparked by concern about the costs of implementing the climate package, Italy joined Eastern European countries in lobbying for a dilution of the commitment to cut greenhouse emissions by 20pc. However, the EU held firm with its ambitious 20-20-20 package – a 20pc cut in greenhouse gas emissions, a 20pc improvement in energy efficiency and 20pc of energy to come from renewable sources, all by 2020.
The EU commitment paved the way for this week's G8 decision to limit global warming to just 2C above pre-industrial levels. At the same time the world's richest nations have been asked to cut emissions by 80pc, while the rest of the world should reduce them by 50pc by 2050.
For its part, the business community is increasingly facing up to its responsibilities. In a publication A Climate Mission for Europe launched by Business for New Europe this week, senior business leaders from 20 companies argue that climate change is now a core issue and urgent priority for business, despite the recession.
The business leaders reiterated that they would like to see Europe continue to take the lead on climate change – both in the setting of targets and establishing policy tools such as carbon markets. As an example, BA chief Willie Walsh commented that "as Europeans, we can take pride in the leading role our policy makers are playing in the fight against climate change".
At the same time, after years of inaction, the US and China seem to be awakening to the threat. The US Stimulus Bill passed by Congress in February contained $60bn (£37bn) in new clean energy incentives. Alongside a newly engaged US and indeed China, the EU can play a stronger role in leading the efforts against climate change.
A key element of responsible leadership involves recognising the moral obligations that developed regions such as Europe have to the rest of the world, with the buzzword for this being "shared but differentiated responsibility." The EU recognises this, and has indicated that it would be willing to raise its own targets for emissions cuts from 20pc to 30pc.
Furthermore, business leaders stress that the debate must go beyond the setting of targets, and on to practical implementation. Obviously, there is no single solution and a multi-pronged approach is required. In our publication, business leaders discuss the suite of practical options that will be needed, including biofuels, nuclear, Carbon Capture and Storage, low energy buildings, smart metering and the importance of decarbonising the transport system.
There is an understandable focus from business on the costs of implementing climate change obligations, but there are also opportunities – the new global market in environmental technologies, is forecast to be worth $3 trillion per year worldwide by 2050
This week's summit in Italy was a key step on the road towards the Copenhagen talks in December. Business wants to see ongoing EU leadership and, by developing technologies, can be part of the long-term solution. In the US, environmentalists are calling it the Green Civil Rights movement. Now that is something that Martin Luther King might have said.
Roland Rudd is the founding chairman of Business for New Europe. Read 'A Climate Mission for Europe' at www.bnegroup.org/info/climatechange