Bringing the world's largest emitters into multilateral efforts to address climate change is the first of the "core elements" identified in the Commission's new climate change strategy paper presented on 9 February.
The idea, floated in a memo attached to the paper, would be to gather "a relatively small group - EU, US, Canada, Russia, Japan, China and India" of emitters accounting for about 75% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. The group would "try to accelerate progress at the global level by discussing reductions […] in parallel with the UN forum", the United Nation's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).
The strategy also seeks to broaden the scope of climate change policies to include aviation, maritime transport and forestry. Adaptation policies would also be developed at EU level and globally.
In addition, Commissioner Dimas reiterated his conviction that climate change policies could be developed at "a manageable cost for our economies" as well as for emerging economies.
Depending on the outcome of discussions with other countries, the Commission indicated that further proposals will be made at the end of this year.
