EU on track to meet Kyoto emissions target

16 October 2008 12:53  [Source: ICIS news]

PARIS (ICIS news)--The EU-15 will meet its Kyoto Treaty commitments and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 8% compared with 1990 figures by 2012, the European Commission said on Thursday.

 

The report, based on the latest projections by member states, showed that policies and measures already implemented were expected to reduce EU-15 emissions to 3.6% below base year levels by 2010, the middle year of the 2008-2012 period.

“Additional measures under discussion in a number of member states would bring a further 3.3% reduction, enabling the EU-15 to do better than its target requires,” said the commission.

Ten of the EU-15 member states had proposed buying credits from emission-saving projects in developing countries under the so-called Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the Joint Implementation (JI) instruments.

Such action would bring a further reduction of 3%, said the commission.

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas welcomed the news but emphasised the need for a post-Kyoto global agreement on climate change.

“Kyoto is only the first step: now the world needs a new international climate agreement that incorporates the ambitious emissions cuts Europe has set itself for 2020 and beyond,” he said.

“For this reason the additional measures that EU member states plan need to be implemented and the Commission's climate change and energy package needs to be approved by the European Parliament and council, without delay,” he added.

The European chemical industry strongly supported efforts to meet the Kyoto targets but had expressed concerns in the past that stricter targets post-2012 could penalise its competitiveness if there was no global agreement to tackle climate change.

The EU-15 comprises of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

 

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By: Philippa Jones
+44 20 8652 3214

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