Articles related to "Can the EU revive global climate talks?"

European finance ministers have reiterated a commitment to providing international climate finance, but are keeping their money cards close to the chest in the run up to the United Nation's climate change conference in Durban later this year.

UN talks have run out of time to meet a December 2012 deadline to put in place a binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol on curbing greenhouse gases, the UN's top climate official said on Monday (6 June).

Delegates from 193 nations are struggling to strike a deal on steps to fight global warming before the UN Cancún climate conference's scheduled deadline of Friday 10 December. If they fail, it will herald a damaging setback for the multilateral process after the Copenhagen summit ended in disarray last year.

The UN climate change process "risks losing momentum and relevance" if the new round of negotiations that opened in Cancún yesterday (29 November) fails to make progress towards a new climate treaty, the EU's climate action commissioner has warned.

The slow pace of the international climate negotiations is not preventing large emerging countries from putting in place ambitious policies, said Mark Kenber, deputy CEO of The Climate Group. He was talking to EurActiv ahead of the UN climate conference in Cancún, which starts next week (29 November).

The EU has this year delivered €2.2 billion in climate finance to developing countries under obligations agreed last year at the Copenhagen climate conference, according to an EU report to be adopted by finance ministers today (17 November).

Norway and Finland are the countries that will be least affected by climate change, while Bangladesh and India are most at risk, according to an index released yesterday (20 October).

Environment ministers are meeting today (14 October) in Luxembourg to set out the EU's strategy for the UN climate conference in Cancún at the end of the year. No decision is expected on whether to raise the bloc's CO2 emission target.

China hit back on Saturday (9 September) at US claims it was shirking in the fight against climate change, likening the criticisms to a mythic pig preening itself.

As the prospects for swift closure of a global climate treaty cloud over, bilateral agreements to cut greenhouse gas emissions are gaining traction. But experts warn they are no replacement for an international treaty.

The European Commission has started working on climate targets above and beyond 2020, arguing that they will be instrumental in fending off competition from leading clean-tech industries in China and elsewhere, according to EU Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard.

Democrats in the US Senate unveiled a slimmed down bill on Tuesday (27 July) aimed at reforming offshore drilling, as doubts grew that Congress would be able to pass any substantial energy legislation this year.

Ministers from the UK, France and Germany have issued a joint call for the EU to raise its emission reduction target to 30% by 2020.

Reviewers of carbon-offsetting projects in developing countries under the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) were given poor grades for the second year in a row by green group WWF.

The majority of EU environment ministers lent their support on Friday (11 June) for deeper CO2 cuts later this year, with several, including France's Jean-Louis Borloo, speaking strongly in favour. Italy's minister, however, said the move was not backed by Rome.

As the latest round of talks draw to a close, outgoing UN climate chief Yvo de Boer warned of slow progress in the negotiations, leaving his successor with the daunting task of concluding a new global climate treaty in 2011. EurActiv reports from Bonn.

Regional governments will work together with businesses to deploy low-carbon technologies even in the absence of a global pact on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, regional leaders told world governments on the sidelines of two-week climate talks in Bonn.

France and Germany yesterday joined the growing ranks of European countries opposed to making further unilateral moves on climate change, as the European Commission today plans to make the case for raising the EU’s greenhouse gas reduction goal from -20% to -30% by 2020.

The chances of concluding a broad-based agreement at the UN climate talks in Cancún are slim as a result of divergent economic interests, write Graham Weale and Alexander Nolden from German energy utility RWE AG. Subsidised jobs in the renewable energy sector are already costing jobs elsewhere, they warn.