Pressure rises to agree emission cuts

Date: 27/02/1997

By Michael Mann

ENVIRONMENT ministers face an uphill struggle to find a common EU strategy to reduce global warming in the first two decades of the next millennium.

Taking a leaf out of their agricultural colleagues' book, the guardians of the continent's environment will come together on Sunday evening (2 March) to begin what could become an all-night session aimed at agreeing a common Union negotiating position for international talks in Kyoto, Japan, in December.

Senior diplomats put the chances of a deal this time around at 50/50.

In December, ministers failed to decide either how far or how fast to go in reducing 'greenhouse' gas emissions. Since then, Dutch Minister Margreeth de Boer has been working on a potential compromise, setting out how much of the burden would have to be borne by each member state.

Her approach divides emissions of harmful gases into three categories: those caused by electricity generation; those emitted by the energy-intensive sector; and those from domestic and transport sources.

The Dutch presidency has attempted to reflect the changes already under way in each member state. The switch in some from coal to gas should allow large cuts in the amount of greenhouse gases produced, while the closure of numerous heavy industrial plants in eastern Germany will enable Bonn to rein in emissions.

The new approach also makes provision for those countries which may be unable to avoid increases in some sectors and eases the terms for the 'cohesion countries' - Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland - to allow room for them to meet particular development needs.

But finding a formula which can be seen to give a fair result for everyone will not be easy.

Some countries still favour calculating reductions on a per capita basis. Others prefer setting an overall percentage by which emissions should be reduced, while some want to make cuts per unit of gross domestic product.

A dispute is also continuing over which gases targets should be set for. Germany and Austria, for example, want restrictions to be limited to carbon dioxide, while the UK believes reductions must be made in “a basket of greenhouse gases”.

The EU faces a problem not shared by any of the other 'Annex I' signatories to the United Nations climate convention - the principal industrialised nations and major generators of the gases blamed for 'global warming'. It has to negotiate a common line internally before entering multilateral talks with other participants.

If ministers succeed in narrowing their differences, it will make the task facing the team of EU negotiators who will travel to the next meeting of the ad hoc group on the Berlin Mandate in August a lot easier.

Another session is scheduled for 27-31 October ahead of the climate summit in Kyoto in December, where greenhouse gas emission targets will be set for the period after 2000.

Ministers will also look again next week at the Commission's proposals to reduce harmful emissions from cars, but will put off a full-scale debate until the European Parliament has completed its first reading of the plans.

“Although clear groupings have emerged in committees, we are going to wait for the Parliament before we take things any further,” said one negotiator.

Meanwhile, Sweden and Finland have asked their EU partners to support stricter norms on sulphur content in diesel and petrol in the wake of a new study by consultants Arthur D Little which suggests tougher limits in diesel would cost less than half as much as the Commission had estimated.