What air in Europe?

Many spoke of a “fiasco”, others of a “half failure”. Only a few optimistic voices asserted that Copenhagen did produce some positive results. In actual fact the Climate Change Conference held in the Danish capital from 7 to 19 December did produce an Accord in extremis that reaffirms some key objectives for environmental protection, though without fixing any precise tasks or timetable. Despite this, the EU formalized at the end of January its own support for the final document, restating its commitment to the reduction of emissions. The 27 leaders of the Union will evaluate the post-Copenhagen during their summit in Brussels on 11 February.Containing global warming. “The EU is determined to move ahead rapidly with implementing the Copenhagen Accord in order to make progress towards the agreement that we need to hold global warming below 2°C”, declared José Manuel Barroso, President of the Commission, in expressing his support for the final document of the UN Conference. He said it “provides a basis on which to build this future agreement” on a common effort to curb the effects of global warming on the human and natural environment. Stavros Dimas, Commissioner for the Environment, echoed his remarks: “Swift action is needed to make operational key elements of the Accord such as fast-start financing for developing countries, the fight against deforestation and the development and transfer of low carbon technologies”. The final document that came out of the UN Conference in December – which was supposed to prepare a strategy for post-Kyoto – was drafted on the last day by the leaders of 28 developed and developing countries and by the European Commission; these countries are responsible for over 80% of global emissions of greenhouse gases. The next step was to declare, by 31 January, whether the signatories wished to be associated with the Copenhagen Accord, and simultaneously make public their own objectives for emission reductions. An effort for the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions was also asked of the developing countries.First point: reducing emissions. In the letter signed by the Commission and the Presidency of the Council, the EU reconfirms its commitment “to a negotiating process to achieve the strategic objective of limiting the increase in global average temperature to below 2°C above the pre-industrial level”, with the aim of preventing dangerous climate change. The letter sent by the EU to the UNO restates the EU’s position that meeting that target and keeping below 2°C requires global emissions to peak by 2020 at the latest, to be reduced to “at least 50% below 1990 levels by 2050 and to continue to decline thereafter”. To this end, and in line with the findings of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “developed countries as a group should reduce their emissions by 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and developing countries should achieve a substantial deviation below the currently predicted emissions growth rates, in the order of 15-30% by 2020”. In the view of the EU, negotiations should be continued “with a view to agreeing as soon as possible, within the UN framework, a legally binding international agreement for the period starting 1 January 2013, when the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period expires”. In its letter the EU also restates its commitment “to an independent economy-wide emissions reduction target of 20% by 2020”, a threshold that could be increased to 30% if the other developed countries “commit themselves to comparable emission reductions”. The negotiations promoted by the UN will continue with a new round of meetings in the late spring of 2010.Control on waste management. Climate change is not of course the only front on which the EU is trying to move forward in the environmental field. On 1st February the Commission intervened on the treatment of waste, which is being produced in growing volumes in the old continent. “It is estimated that 2.6 billion tons of waste are produced each year in the EU, and that 90 million tons of this are classified as dangerous”, says a dossier presented by the Commission: “Controlling that waste management occurs in a safe way and in respect for the environment represents one of the most important environmental challenges that the EU has to face at the present time”. The study recommends the establishment of a specific agency for this task at the EU level; it would be “given the task of tackling the basic problems linked to shortcomings in the implementation and application of European legislation on waste”. In recent years “the problem has been aggravated following the growth in the production and transfer of waste in the enlarged Union”. Dimas explained: “Respect for EU legislation is essential if we want to achieve the main objective of the legislation”, “namely protecting the health of European citizens and preserving the environment”.