Oct 15 2008
WWF has launched an appeal to the French Presidency of the European Union and to all European governments not to let the financial crisis undermine the need to reach an agreement on a solid package of measures to address climate change before the end of the year.
WWF points out that the over-exploitation of fossil fuels - such as coal, gas and oil - is putting the whole of humanity under threat from climate change. © WWF-Canon / Mauri RAUTKARI
At the European Council meeting taking place in Brussels on 15-16 October 2008, and in relation to the “EU climate and energy package”, the European Council will discuss the controversial issue of the potential impact of the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme on the competitiveness of industries within the EU which use a lot of energy. EU leaders will also discuss the auctioning of pollution permits and the use of significant revenues that will be generated, as well as security of energy supply.
“European countries need to reaffirm the EU commitment to cut greenhouse gases by 30% by 2020, without any escape clauses. A strong European climate package will make Europe more resilient to future economic fluctuations, as it will reduce reliance on foreign energy supplies, create more sustainable jobs and lead other countries to join forces to avoid dramatic consequences of climate change,” says Delia Villagrasa, Senior Advisor at WWF.
“The French Presidency must stop using the financial crisis as an excuse to weaken measures which will only come into force from 2013”.
Last week the European Parliament’s environment committee voted to support the EU climate and energy package proposed by the European Commission earlier this year. But France, who currently holds the Presidency of the EU, has since put forward damaging proposals which would significantly water down the package.
One particularly worrying proposal would allow even more access to emission reduction ‘offset’ credits in developing countries projects (with no guarantee that they are environmentally and socially robust).
Together with France, the UK, Netherlands and Sweden are also notably poor on this issue. Access to significant volumes of project credits will reduce action to cut climate pollution within the EU and allow continued investment in high carbon infrastructure, such as new coal-fired power stations. It also sends the signal to developing countries that rich nations are not willing to go first in cutting emissions – a dangerous position to take in the lead up to the December UN climate change conference in Poznan.
The Presidency, supported by Italy, Germany and Poland, also wants the manufacturing sector to be exempted from the polluter pays principle by receiving pollution allowances for free as a sop to those industries which claim that the EU Emissions Trading Scheme could harm their competitiveness on the global stage.
WWF denounces this as an attempt to subsidise polluting companies.
Poland and Italy also seek to exclude some power markets from having to purchase all their pollution permits arguing that in countries without a fully liberalised power market, full auctioning would push up the price of power. However, this is very unlikely to be the case. Instead, power companies may continue to reap massive windfall profits from the pass through of the value of free allowances to the price of power.
Many Member States propose not to earmark revenues from auctioning of pollution permits in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme for measures to tackle climate change. By 2020 it is estimated that these revenues could be worth around €50 billion per year. This completely back tracks on the position of the European Parliament who called for all of the revenues to be used to tackle climate change – with half of the revenues going to developing countries.
WWF calls on President Nicolas Sarkozy and all European leaders to reflect the urgency and danger of climate change in their decisions. All European countries need to step up, deliver on their promises and help poorer countries in fighting global warming.
“It would be a big strategic error to backslide because of the economic downturn at such a critical moment. Everyone should have learned from today’s financial crisis that there are serious consequences for lack of early regulation,” added Villagrasa.