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Europe continues to block fair climate agreement
Brussels, October 21 – A just and fair international agreement on
combating climate change is no nearer after europe’s environment
ministers today failed to show Europe is willing to live up to its
historical responsibilities for causing the climate crisis.
Environment ministers reached an agreement on the EU’s position for the
international climate negotiations in December. The position, which
ministers claim readies Europe to reach agreement in Copenhagen, fails
to commit Europe to make the cuts in emissions needed to avoid dangerous
climate change. It commits the EU to make only 20% cuts in emissions by
2020 compared to 1990 levels, with a conditional shift to 30% subject to
comparable reductions by other countries.
Ministers still failed to guarantee the funding needed to help poor
countries deal with the impacts of a changing climate.
Sonja Meister, climate campaign coordinator for Friends of the Earth
Europe, said: “The level of ambition demonstrated by environment
ministers will not deliver a fair and just global climate agreement in
Copenhagen. Europe must go much further than this and live up to its
historical responsibilities by committing to cut emissions by 40%
domestically by 2020 and to provide its fair share of the funding for
adaptation and mitigation in developing countries. Committing to only
20% emissions cuts with huge amounts of offsetting allowed falls far
short of what science tells us is needed and will lead the world
straight toward dangerous climate change.”
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For information please contact:
Francesca Gater, communications officer for Friends of the Earth Europe:
+32 28 93 10 10 or + 32 4 85 93 05 15, francesca.gater@foeeurope.org
Friends of the Earth Europe campaigns for sustainable and fair societies and for the protection of the environment,
unites more than 30 national organisations with thousands of local groups
and is part of the world's largest grassroots environmental network, Friends of the Earth International.
