EU to propose $200 bln climate tax on rich nations
22 Jan 2009 16:13:54 GMT
Source: Reuters
By
Pete Harrison and Gerard Wynn
BRUSSELS/LONDON, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Rich nations could raise $200
billion in climate funds through a levy on their greenhouse gases from
2013-2020 to help poor countries prepare for global warming, the
European Union will say next week.
The plan is set out in an EU paper outlining the bloc's position ahead
of U.N.-led climate talks in Copenhagen in December, meant to agree a
new, global climate treaty.
The fund-raising idea is the most specific yet from any rich country or
bloc on how to persuade developing nations to agree binding, concrete
steps to slow their greenhouse gas emissions -- one of the key
obstacles in climate talks so far.
The draft paper to be published next week, and seen by Reuters, calls
on rich countries to pay for developing countries to cut their
greenhouse gases, called mitigation, and prepare for unavoidable
warming, called adaptation. "All developed countries will need to
contribute to financial resources for adaptation and mitigation in
developing countries via public funding and the use of carbon crediting
mechanisms," it said.
Rich countries should commit to binding limits on their greenhouse gas
emissions through 2020. They could then pay a set price for every tonne
of emissions, the paper said, under one of "two principal options to
generate funding".
The other option would be to pay at rates per tonne on a global carbon
market, and so not guarantee a price.
If widely agreed the plan could encourage the world's top carbon
emitter, China, to agree to internationally binding climate measures.
That in turn could satisfy a general pre-condition made by the second
biggest emitter, the United States, for signing up to a successor to
the Kyoto Protocol.
The United States did not ratify Kyoto because the pact contained no
concrete commitments by developing countries, a position the new Obama
administration is likely to maintain regarding a successor pact after
2012.
The EU paper said that if the main developed countries paid 1 euro per
tonne of greenhouse gases in 2013 rising to 3 euros in 2020, that would
raise 164 billion euros ($213 billion) over the period. It
called for a gradual phasing out of carbon offsetting, which
allows rich nations to lay off their greenhouse gas emisisons by paying
for cuts in developing countries.
The EU is the world's biggest buyer of carbon offsets, and last month
agreed climate targets which allowed EU states and companies to offset
up to 3 billion tonnes of their greenhouse gas emissions from
2008-2020, or more than the annual emissions of the Netherlands.
Carbon offsetting allows developing countries, which at present face no
binding climate targets, to earn money in return for curbing greenhouse
gases. The EU wants to phase out that option for "advanced developing
countries", which the paper said should face binding caps instead. But
it gave no timeline for the change.