Brussels vague, Barcelona must be bolder
2 November 2009
Last week’s European Council meeting in Brussels ended with only vague messages on most of the essential issues blocking international climate change negotiations. This week’s UN talks in Barcelona must go much further.
Hopes that Europe would re-establish strong leadership in the global fight against climate change were not entirely realised at the meeting in Brussels last week. But there were some promising signs to carry forward to this week’s vital Barcelona talks.
WWF’s director of campaigns, David Norman, says: “Despite the clear need for the EU to nail its colours to the mast regarding finance and emissions targets in advance of Copenhagen, last week’s outcome gave no clear figure for the European contribution to a global financial package.
“European leaders have at least acknowledged that substantial sums of public money will be needed to help developing nations cope with the challenges of climate change. But they’ve failed to set out Europe's share, or to flesh out options for new, additional sources of finance – notably from international aviation and shipping industries.
“It’s equally frustrating that the increase in CO2 reduction targets has been made conditional on comparable efforts by other developed countries, rather than setting out a firm goal that the EU will stick to.
“The new long-term aim of CO2 emission reductions in Europe of 80-95% by 2050 is encouraging, but we have to significantly pick up the pace to meet that goal.
“The EU’s emphasis on the need for a legally binding agreement is precisely what’s required at present, and could give impetus to this week’s UN climate change negotiation in Barcelona – as well as the EU-US summit on Tuesday 3 November, which also has climate change as one of the main items on its agenda.”
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