EU Reaches Unanimous Decision on Climate Package

Hindsight Is 20/20/20
European Union reaches unanimous agreement on climate package
12 Dec 2008

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BRUSSELS, Dec. 12, 2008 (AFP) -- E.U. leaders agreed Friday on a landmark package to slash greenhouse gas emissions, urging incoming U.S. president Barack Obama to follow their lead in the fight against global warming.

But environmentalists promptly slammed the agreement, complaining too many concessions had been made to reach a deal. Industry representatives meanwhile warned of possible closures and job losses.

"It is quite historic what has happened here," French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a press conference at the conclusion of a two-day E.U. summit in Brussels.

"No continent has given itself such binding rules that we have adopted with unanimity," added Sarkozy, who chaired the gathering as head of the French E.U. presidency.

The E.U.'s climate-energy package, the "20-20-20" deal, would decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, make 20 percent energy savings, and bring renewable energy sources up to 20 percent of total energy use.

Sarkozy denied that the targets had been watered down during the negotiations with fellow E.U. leaders who feared the package would hit energy and jobs as recession bites.

"The objectives remain the same," said Sarkozy. "No way can the (economic) crisis be used as an excuse not to move on the environment."

But Greenpeace, WWF, and other environmental groups denounced the agreement as "a dark day for European climate policy."

"European heads of state and government have reneged on their promises and turned their backs on global efforts to fight climate change," they said in a joint statement.

They accused the German, Italian, and Polish leaders plus Sarkozy of choosing "private profits of polluting industry over the will of European citizens, the future of their children and the plight of millions of people around the world."

The green groups called on the European Parliament, which must also approve the deal, to "amend the worst parts."

Industry, while appreciating the last-minute concessions, said the plans could still result in job losses and the dreaded "carbon leakage" whereby industry moves out of highly regulated regions.

"The risks of carbon leakage are still there," said Axel Eggert, spokesman for Eurofer, the European iron and steel federation.

The European Commission estimates that the project will cost some 100 billion euros over the period up to 2020, though pointing out the emissions trading system by which polluting permits will be auctioned, will generate much more.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the agreement showed that the 27-nation bloc was serious about tackling global warming.

The European Union is keen to be seen at the forefront of the battle against climate change, and wants to arrive at international climate change talks in Copenhagen in a year with a model for the rest of the world.

Barroso said Obama's election offered a chance for a joint effort between Europe and the world's biggest economy to combat global warming.

"We are asking him to join Europe and with us lead this global effort," he said. "Our message to our global partners is this one: 'Yes you can. Yes you can also do what we are doing. Yes you can achieve the targets that we have committed ourselves to achieve'."

U.S. Senator John Kerry, Obama's pointman at U.N. environment talks in Poznan, Poland, called the E.U. climate pact "an enormous act of leadership" that blazes a path for the entire world.

Under the agreed scheme each nation and each sector of industry have been given their own targets on emissions reductions.

The national targets range from cuts of up to 20 percent in greenhouse gas emissions while for the less advanced eastern European nations emissions are allowed to rise by up to 20 percent by 2020.