Tag: climate change

Economic and finance ministers meeting in Brussels yesterday (10 March) failed to put figures on the table to finance climate change in the midst of global negotiations, despite the calls of over 300 protesters arrested for blocking the entrance of the Council building.

Poland is pushing EU economic and finance ministers to agree on how the industrialised world should divide the burden of financial assistance to developing countries to fight climate change.

Swedish EU Affairs Minister Cecilia Malmström unveiled the logo of her country's upcoming EU presidency on Monday (2 March). The design, a golden S-shaped curve dividing - or perhaps uniting - two blue sides was described by the winning advertising agency, Bacon Advertising, as reflecting "openness, dialogue, climate and light".

Environment ministers failed yesterday (2 March) to hammer out an EU position for global climate talks, passing the buck on funding to finance ministers expected to meet next Tuesday (10 March) in Brussels.

Environment ministers from the 27-member bloc will meet on Monday (2 March) to fine-tune the EU's position ahead of international climate negotiations for the period after 2012. But views differ as to how the world's richest countries should contribute, with member states at odds over criteria such as GDP and population size.

China and India must play their full part in fighting climate change and accept that programmes financed by the West to modernise their industries will only come in return for making genuine efforts at home, warns the EU's chief climate negotiator in an interview with EurActiv.

The UN climate change conference in Copenhagen this December "may well determine whether or not the world can respond to a threat which scientists are convinced will lead to catastrophic change unless we act fast," writes Michael Berendt, a senior policy advisor at Fleishman Hillard, on Blogactiv.

The European Parliament yesterday (4 February) adopted detailed recommendations for a future integrated policy on climate change by large majority, calling on the EU to commit to more ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets and make energy-saving targets legally binding.

2009 presents a diplomatic opportunity for governments of major economies to mobilise "unprecedented public-private collaboration" to address climate change as part of a wider economic growth agenda, participants in the World Economic Forum stated yesterday (29 January).

The European Commission yesterday (28 January) presented proposals for a global agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, urging rapidly developing countries such as China and India to take on their fair share of responsibility in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The EU will present proposals on Wednesday (28 January) for an international agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The bloc is calling for a increase in global investment to 175 billion euro per year by 2020, more than half of which must be spent in developing countries.

While the EU 27 worked towards the adoption of groundbreaking climate change legislation in 2008, US President-elect Barack Obama made ambitious commitments to tackle global warming during his presidential campaign. Ahead of international talks on a post-Kyoto climate deal, EurActiv asked experts whether Obama will outgreen Europe.

Tackling climate change and its consequences, reforming the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, improving air quality and reducing the environmental impact of biofuels will top the bloc's environmental policy debates in the coming year, according to the European Environment Agency (EEA).

It is unrealistic to expect a new global deal on climate change to replace the Kyoto Protocol by next December in Copenhagen, said Stuart Eizenstat, a former US ambassador to the EU who served as an advisor in both Clinton and Carter administrations. "We will be able to set at the very least a framework for final agreement," said Eizenstat, who has already earned 'Washington wiseman' status and is likely to serve Obama as a behind-the scene mentor.

Last week's EU climate change accord was "a step in the right direction," according to the chemical industry, whose reaction starkly contrasts the huge disappointment expressed by environmental groups. 

There is "no need to wait for extreme weather events to strike and islands and coastal regions to be flooded" to develop effective climate change adaptation policies, argue Frank Biermann, professor of environmental policy sciences at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IES) et al. in a November paper for the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS).

Amid a growing sense of urgency at UN climate talks underway in Poznań, developing countries are leading the drive for bold emissions reduction measures, stealing the limelight from EU leaders struggling to finalise the bloc's ambitious climate package in Brussels.

The European Commission will publish proposals next February to boost the use of smart technologies to combat climate change, Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding told industry representatives in Brussels.

Frustrated by a lack of progress in talks over a new climate agreement taking place in Poznań, activists and delegates used the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to warn negotiators that legal action will increase unless governments take decisive steps to tackle global warming.

European Union diplomats were edging closer to a deal on the bloc's ambitious climate change and energy 'package' of legislation on the eve of a two-day EU summit starting today (11 December), according to a draft version of the summit conclusions obtained by EurActiv.

The main elements of an international agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol are already there, according to Stavros Dimas, the EU's environment commissioner. But "a shared vision" on how to achieve the objectives is still missing, he told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

Despite "significant steps" taken to soften the impact of the EU's climate change goals on its industry, Italy yesterday (8 December) continued to maintain a tough negotiating line ahead of a decisive EU summit on 11-12 December.

Following the agreement on a roadmap to negotiate a succesor to the Kyoto Protocol at the UN conference in Bali, EurActiv examines some of the main policy options and instruments available for mounting a global response to climate change. 

The Poznań climate negotiations should maintain "realistic" expectations and focus on defining the issues that must be addressed once the new US administration has taken office and all interested parties are sitting at the table, William Ramsay, formerly deputy director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), told EurActiv in an interview.