http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44283

CLIMATE CHANGE: EU Members Changing Their Mind
By David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Oct 15 (IPS) - Plans by the European Union to slash its 
greenhouse gas emissions by one-fifth encountered serious difficulties 
this week as some of the bloc's governments deemed the measures too costly.

Although leaders from all of the EU's 27 countries committed themselves 
last year to reducing the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) released by 
their economies by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, the turbulence 
that has beset the world economy in the interim has prompted some of 
them to rethink the objective. This became clear as a two-day summit -- 
with an agenda dominated by environmental and financial issues – opened 
in Brussels Oct. 15.

France has stated that it wishes to finalise work on the contents of the 
EU's 'climate and energy package', which sets out how the emission cuts 
should be implemented, before its six-month presidency of the Union 
concludes in December. But others are pressing for the entire programme 
to be renegotiated. Italy's right-leaning government, which came to 
power earlier this year, has warned that reaching the EU's targets could 
cost it up to 181 billion euros (246 billion dollars).

The part of the package most likely to be diluted relates to the 
emissions trading system (ETS). It places a limit on the amount of 
carbon dioxide that European firms can emit, and then requires them to 
obtain permits to pollute.

After energy-intensive industries such as steel, cement, aluminium, 
glass and paper warned that the scheme could force them to leave the EU 
for countries with lower ecological standards, France, Italy, Germany 
and Poland have recommended that such firms should be awarded permits 
free of charge.

Green activists are adamant that these permits should instead be 
auctioned and that the money collected be used to for environmental 
protection. The European Parliament recently argued that half of the 
programmes supported from these proceeds -- estimated to be worth 50 
billion euros per year -- should be undertaken in poor countries, which, 
according to scientists, are bearing the brunt of extreme weather 
conditions.

Greenpeace argued that handing out permits for free would not be 
economically prudent. "Free allocations bring short-term savings to some 
polluting industries, but they increase the cost of CO2 reduction for 
the economy as a whole," said Jorgo Riss, director of the group's 
Brussels office. "They delay structural efficiency improvements in the 
economy and are therefore the wrong choice at a time when the EU should 
scale up its long-term competitiveness."

He also urged the leaders not to allow their economic woes to undermine 
their pledge to address climate change. "In 2020, few people will 
remember the current financial crisis but their well-being and 
prosperity will be directly affected by the fundamental, long-term 
decisions that you are making now about the EU's energy and climate 
package," he wrote in a letter to the EU's 27 governments.

Jeremy Hobbs, head of the anti-poverty organisation Oxfam, said it is 
vital that leaders heed calls for the revenue generated from emissions 
trading to be used for the benefit of poor countries. He argued, too, 
that the EU should restate that it is prepared to reduce its emissions 
to 30 percent below 1990 levels if it can convince other industrialised 
countries to do likewise as part of an international agreement. Such a 
commitment was made by EU governments in 2007.

"European Union leaders must at all costs resist the pressure from heavy 
industry to weaken its climate change policies," said Hobbs. "The 
livelihoods of millions of poor people are at stake who are being hit 
first and hardest by climate change but are least responsible for it. 
The EU must seize this moment to be bold and ambitious and give a clear 
signal to industry and the rest of the world that it's serious about 
investing in a green future. Anything less at this critical time would 
be myopic and weak."

José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, has also 
exhorted the bloc's governments not to abandon the green agenda. 
Watering down the commitments made last year would damage the EU's 
credibility during international talks on framing a successor to the 
Kyoto agreement on reducing emissions, scheduled to take place in 
Poznan, Poland, this December and in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009.

"Saving the planet is not an after-dinner drink, a digestif you take or 
leave," Barroso said. "Climate change does not disappear because of the 
financial crisis."

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) recently published a study stating 
that reducing emissions would lead to major savings in the healthcare 
bills paid by EU governments. Striving towards a 30 percent reduction 
target could save the Union up to 25 billion euros per year by ensuring 
that there are fewer hospital admissions and less absenteeism from the 
workplace linked to respiratory complaints. The group maintains, too, 
that replacing fossil fuels, the primary source of carbon dioxide 
released into the atmosphere, with renewable energy can be a significant 
source of job creation.

"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," said 
WWF campaigner Delia Villagrasa. (END/2008)

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