EU officials tried to keep optimistic after Cop 15
After the deceiving non binding targets deal obtained at Copenhagen, EU officials tried to be rather optimistic and wanted to see the first step of a more ambitious agreement. They also pointed to EU’s contribution of €30 bln to a UN Technology Transfer fund to support developing countries to rapidly integrate emission reducing technologies.
President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso considered that “This accord is better than no accord. This was a positive step but clearly below our ambition. So Copenhagen was, I think, a first step but we need many more steps in the future. And we, as the European Union, will pursue with our ambition”.
He highlighted the importance that “we kept our commitment regarding the support to developing countries. Our African partners and others very specifically thanked us for that, because not all have contributed to what we believe is a very important obligation, which is the need to support the poorest, the most vulnerable in their fight against climate change”.
Andreas Carlgren, the environment minister of Sweden, the country holding the rotating E.U. presidency, was more pessimistic recognizing that the summit meeting had been a “great failure” partly because other nations had rejected targets and a timetable for the rest of the world to sign on to binding emissions reductions.
The main critic was addressed by industry and environmental groups, which considered that the E.U. went into the conference with a strategy of leading by example on emissions cuts but failed to marshal other nations to follow and to end up sidelined at the summit meeting.
“It was obvious that the United States and China didn’t want more than we achieved at Copenhagen” Mr. Carlgren argued. The obstacles created by those countries were “part of what we regretted” he added.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown described the summit as “at best flawed and at worst chaotic” and demanded an urgent reform of the process to try to reach a legal treaty when talks are expected to resume in Germany next June.
But Danish Climate Minister Connie Hedegaard, who quit as president of the talks midway through after being criticized by African countries for favouring wealthier nations in negotiations, said there was no point in getting depressed. “What we need to do is to secure the step that we took and turn it into a result,” she said. Asked whether Copenhagen had been a failure, she replied: “It would have been a failure if we had achieved nothing. But we achieved something – a first step. It was the first time we held a process where all the countries were present, including the big emitters.”
