Environment ministers from the EU to postpone its decision on cutting emissions

Europe has the "vocation" and "will" to reduce its CO2 emissions by 30% in 2020 compared to 1990 levels, but that goal will take place only if other countries make efforts "comparable" to the European Union, Efe reported.

The problem is that the EU itself has not yet defined what "comparability", a term that can be interpreted as equal effort or effort within the capacity of each country.

This was recognized by Secretary of State for Climate Change, Teresa Ribera, after chairing the informal council of environment ministers of the EU, meeting in Seville today.

In the same press conference, the EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the EU's objective remains to reach agreement "global, ambitious and binding", something "we could not get in the Copenhagen Climate Summit .

However, "the disappointment that came out of this Summit can now be used to advance and ask everyone and get a stronger commitment at the meeting in Mexico (November 2010), the agreement we all want," he said.
Diplomatic efforts

For his part, Minister of Climate and Energy of Belgium (a country that will chair the EU after Spain), Paul Magnette, has said that Europe must take advantage of their networks and international contacts to make a great diplomacy scale and get far more concrete progress in the Copenhagen agreement.

Magnette meant that Europe must continue working to ensure that all countries that attended the Copenhagen summit will announce their emission reduction commitments, which is still unknown, since the agreement was signed at the summit was only Danish a statement of intent that countries must be accomplished before next January 31.

The emissions reduction target to be carried out in Europe will be fixed, in fact, next week at the meeting of the Council of Permanent Representatives in Brussels, called Coreper, which is to decide whether the EU finally committed to a reduction emissions of 30% in 2020 compared to 1990 levels or remains at 20%.

For now, it appears that only has taken clear that the target of 20% is "clear", but a commitment beyond that number will depend on what other countries do, something that will not be known next week .

But even apart from what other countries decide, as the most polluting emerging, it appears that within the EU there is little consensus on the possibility of reducing emissions by 30%, as is the case in Poland or Italy , as environment minister even said, in comments reported by EFE-Dow-Jones, that "after the failure of Copenhagen, raised 30% is surreal."

Others, however, as Spain, Britain, Germany and France are in favor of that goal.
UN Advocacy

What I do agree that the 27 is that the UN is the "only place to be conducting" negotiations on climate change.

"From Europe, the sentiment is clear that the place must perform these negotiation processes is large United Nations," which is "the only forum for global reach," said Teresa Ribera.

"If there are other forums or restricted spaces, from a sectoral or geographical reasons, should be forums that help, forums complementary to the UN, never substitutes," he underlined.

Bank was responding to Jonathan Pershing, the United States representative at the last summit in Copenhagen, who recently described the meetings of the UN to "chaotic" and has advocated that the climate negotiations take place only between most polluting countries.