Aviation and shipping added to EU emissions targets

Europe toughened its climate change targets tonight – adding aviation and shipping to the sectors earmarked for emissions cuts as part of a global deal in December.

EU environment ministers upped the pressure at talks in Luxembourg which set the terms of the offer Europe will table at a United Nations environment showdown in Copenhagen in six weeks.

However, a crucial piece of the EU climate change package is missing – because EU finance ministers failed yesterday to agree how much they are prepared to pay to developing nations to help them meet the cost of implementing any global accord.

The issue is vital to ensure the developing world signs up to a global deal many poor countries cannot afford without help.

Some EU countries were ready to commit funding yesterday, including the UK, Denmark and The Netherlands.

But the exact figures, and the national share of the extra burden, were hotly disputed by some other ministers.

Now EU leaders will try to complete the deal at a summit in Brussels next week so the EU can table a credible plan alongside the contributions from America, China, India, and elsewhere.

The EU commitments confirmed today include a long-standing pledge to cut CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020, compared with 1990 levels.

That is a “unilateral” target the EU will stick to even if the rest of the world cannot agree. A tougher EU target of cutting emissions by 30% by 2020 is contingent on everyone else agreeing to do the same.

Sweden’s environment minister, Andreas Carlgren, chairing today’s talks, said the EU was challenging the rest of the world to set a long-term target of cutting overall carbon emissions by 80-95% by 2050 compared to 1990.

He also announced the first effort to tackle emissions from planes and ships, suggesting targets of cutting aviation emissions by 10% by 2020 compared with 2005 levels, and 20% cuts across the maritime sector.

EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas said that now all that was needed was agreement on financing the developing world’s climate change efforts.

“I’m very disappointed that our finance colleagues did not get an agreement on climate finance. We expect EU leaders meeting on October 29 to reach one.”

A Department of Energy and Climate Change spokesman said: “Today’s agreement was about setting the framework for the EU to negotiate an ambitious deal in Copenhagen.

“With less than 50 days to go, it’s crucial that Europe has demonstrated its commitment to maintaining its leadership position on climate change.

“The EU’s call to set targets for aviation and maritime at 10% and 20% respectively sends a strong signal about the impact of these sectors on our global reduction efforts.”

But Greenpeace said the EU negotiating position was not strong enough to break an expected deadlock in Copenhagen – and next week’s EU summit was now the last chance to give the climate change negotiations a boost.

Greenpeace EU climate policy director Joris den Blanken said: “The EU’s reduction target and its financial commitments are simply not good enough to achieve a breakthrough in Copenhagen that will protect us from the dangers of climate change.

“The longer we wait, the higher the human, environmental and financial cost of climate change will be.”

Sonja Meister, climate campaign co-ordinator for Friends of the Earth Europe, said: “The level of ambition demonstrated by environment ministers will not deliver a fair and just global climate agreement in Copenhagen.

“Europe must go much further than this and live up to its historical responsibilities by committing to cut emissions by 40% domestically by 2020 and to provide its fair share of the funding for adaptation and mitigation in developing countries.”