By Ben Nimmo, DPA,
Brussels : The European Union says it can lead the world’s fight against climate change: now the time has come to prove it.
From Tuesday, EU ministers meet in Luxembourg for talks aimed at nailing down the bloc’s position on every aspect of global warming ahead of December’s UN summit in Copenhagen.
And officials are in no doubt over the importance of those talks for the EU’s credibility in Copenhagen.
“What we are preparing has been called the ‘super week’ in Luxembourg,” Sweden’s Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said Friday.
The Copenhagen talks are set to define how the world should deal with the threat of climate change. The EU wants to seize the initiative by drawing up a complete blueprint for global action while powers such as the US and China are still debating what to do.
But to do that, the bloc’s 27 member states will first have to agree on all the details themselves.
And EU sources admitted Friday that members were still far apart on the key issues – leaving ministers with a tough battle in Luxembourg.
EU finance ministers start the series Tuesday with a debate on how to fund the fight against climate change in poor states.
According to internal documents, Sweden wants the ministers to offer fast-track EU funding to help poor countries fight climate change in the next three years, and to agree how to split the bill between themselves.
Advocates say that such declarations would put pressure on other rich nations to do the same in Copenhagen.
But the proposals have sparked a massive row between member states, with some arguing that it is too early to make funding pledges now, and others saying that they cannot afford to pay the developing world when they have a financial crisis at home.
On Wednesday, environment ministers are set to debate the EU’s entire negotiating strategy for Copenhagen in a meeting which insiders say could run late into the night.
Documents show that Sweden wants member states to go to Denmark with a whole set of concrete proposals in hand, including how much the EU should cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and how much a Copenhagen deal should cut emissions from aviation and shipping.
Sweden’s proposals would also bind member states not to flood world carbon markets with emissions permits built up over the last 15 years under the Kyoto Protocol, and reject calls to debate a climate-linked import tax in case the Copenhagen talks fail.
All those proposals are aimed at allowing the EU to come to Copenhagen with the attitude of, “We’re already doing it: what can you offer to match?”
But they have all sparked bitter political infighting, as member states struggle to protect key national industries against what they see as potentially hugely costly pledges.
Indeed, some Brussels insiders say that the political debate is now so hot that not even ministers will be able to handle it, and that the hottest topics will have to wait until the EU’s next summit, Oct 29-30.
But whoever takes the decisions, they will have to do so fast: the next scheduled EU summit is not until Dec 10, two days after the Copenhagen talks begin.
And that leaves the EU just two weeks to solve all its climate wrangles if it is to seize the initiative in Copenhagen.
“There are many salesmen in pessimism, but we know that’s the easy way out, not the way to show leadership,” Carlgren said.