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European Union leaders open a two-day summit 13 March 2008 on global warming Thursday, and they are expected to warn countries such as the U.S. and China that they could face EU trade sanctions if they don't accept, and comply with, a new international accord aimed at reducing C02 emissions.
A draft summit statement speaks of taking "appropriate measures" against industrialized — and industrializing — nations, if they prove to be laggards on climate change.
The text, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, does not name any trade partners. But its message appears aimed in part at the United States, which has shunned the 1997 Kyoto agreement, the existing international climate change accord that expires in 2012.
The leaders plan to warn that unless countries such as the U.S. and China commit to a new international accord curbing carbon dioxide and other emissions that cause global warming that they may face import and other sanctions in their trade with the 27-nation EU.
Last year, the EU promised to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent and to raise the use of renewable sources to 20 percent of overall energy use by 2020.
The emissions cut will reach 30 percent, if a new global climate change accord is reached.
This week's summit is meant to reinforce European claims of taking the lead role among Western nations in cutting emissions amid U.N. climate change talks, Slovenian Environment Minister Janez Podobnik said Tuesday.
"This package helps the European Union to preserve its role of global leader. In this we are maintaining our credibility," Podobnik told reporters in Brdo Pri Kranju, Slovenia.
The cuts are to be achieved through a "cap-and-trade" program in which industries buy and sell emission "credits" covering several greenhouse gases. It is to cover all major industrial emitters to yield an EU-wide emissions cut of 20 percent by 2020. Some sectors, notably transportation, housing and farming, face an overall emission cut of 10 percent by 2020.
The plan has led to fears that industries will leave Europe to avoid emission curbs and acquire an edge over competitors who stay and pay into the cap-and-trade program.
To prevent such "carbon leakage," the EU will insist on an international emissions plan to make the fight against climate change truly global and to create a level playing field for industries worldwide. The EU has said its emission system can easily be linked to a global network of pollution auctioning rights.
Major polluters would eventually pay €50 billion (US$77 billion) a year in emissions trading charges through the EU system — money governments will use to encourage clean energy development.
Difficult negotiations among governments on the EU energy cuts package have already begun, but face hurdles such as differences over car emission limits.
"It is our responsibility to start delivering on (the EU's energy) commitments," Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, the summit chairman, said in a pre-meeting letter to the EU leaders.
"We need progress towards a common agreement which will enable us to maintain global leadership on climate change."
Yvo de Boer — head of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change that led to the Kyoto Accord — has urged the EU to start thinking about financial aid for green, sustainable economic growth in nations such as China, Brazil and India with emerging economies.
The draft summit statement heeds that appeal by committing the EU to begin international discussions on "a coherent, effective and fair" financial assistance scheme.
These so-called "carbon offsets" — for instance building a wind farm in China — do not sit well with environmentalists who say they do nothing to alter the behavior of large polluters in Europe and the United States.
