Paris Congress: Call for World Action on Climate
- February 4th, 2007
- Posted by EUEditor
The European Union has demanded urgent action by developed countries to set up a new international accord on climate change, following the United Nations congress on climate, in Paris (2.2.07).
It has already declared a self-imposed and binding objective for its twenty-seven member states, of a 20% cut in carbon dioxide pollution by 2020, (on 1990 benchmarks), and wants this extended to 30% in a world agreement to take over from the current Kyoto accord.
The EU Environment Commissioner, Stavros Dimas, said the scientific report presented at Paris, demonstrating broad consensus about rapidly rising temperatures, mostly caused by human action, showed it was time for urgent actrion.
He told the Congress a 30% cut was realisable if tackled without delay.
“The window of opportunity for meeting this objective is however closing fast,” he said.
“Such ambitions can only be achieved through global action, and global action requires continued leadership from the EU and developed countries as a whole.
“In particular, we expect the United States as the world first emitter of greenhouse gases to take action.
“The European Commission has already taken landmark decisions on emission trading …
“It has also proposed to curb emissions from aviation by including it in EU emission trading.
“This week, the Commission adopted an important decision about fuel quality, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fuel use, and for the car sector, as one of the main emitters of CO2, legislation is now necessary to reach the Community objective of 120 gr CO2/km.
“The scientific case presented today makes it clear that we must take firm action to reduce emissions, and I am therefore pleased that the Commission will adopt the decision to introduce legislation for CO2 emission from cars next week. ”
Proposed new car emission standards have been delayed over disagreements on whether to regulate, or continue with a voluntary systems for the motor vehicle industry.