[News] from [guardian.co.uk]
[Environment > Copenhagen Climate change conference 2009]
Gordon Brown: EU cuts must go deeper to get Copenhagen climate deal
Prime minister tells the Guardian he hopes the EU will agree to a cut in emissions of 30% by 2020
Ian Katz, Damian Carrington and John Vidal in Copenhagen
The Guardian, Tuesday 8 December 2009 Article history
Gordon Brown is pushing European leaders to commit to deeper cuts in carbon emissions in an attempt to seal a global deal, he revealed as representatives of 192 countries began negotiations at the climate change summit in Copenhagen.
The prime minister told the Guardian he hoped the EU would agree to cut its output of greenhouse gases by 30% on 1990 levels by 2020 – a cut 10 percentage points deeper than Europe is currently offering. So far, the EU has said it will cut by 30% only if an ambitious global deal is reached.
Brown said: "We've got to make countries recognise that they have to be as ambitious as they say they want to be. It's not enough to say 'I may do this, I might do this, possibly I'll do this'. I want to create a situation in which the European Union is persuaded to go to 30%."
Any move to increase Europe's emissions reduction target would be fiercely resisted by eastern European countries as well as Italy and Austria, who have opposed deeper cuts.
An increase in the European pledge would mean the UK would have to achieve a cut of 42% by 2020, compared with the current British target of 34%. Because the UK is already racing to build renewable energy as fast as it can, the additional cuts would probably require measures such as road charging, increased fuel taxes and tougher emissions standards for cars.
On the opening day of the Copenhagen summit Saudi Arabia's chief climate negotiator, Mohammed al-Sabban, told delegates that the scandal over hacked emails from University of East Anglia researchers had undermined confidence in the science of climate change and would "affect the nature of what can be trusted in the negotiations".
But after lambasting climate deniers as "flat-earth sceptics" and "anti-change Luddites", Brown would say only that he "fundamentally disagrees" with Sabban, who last week said he believed there was no link between human behaviour and warming. "I somehow think that when we get agreement the Saudis will not refuse to be part of it," Brown said.
The prime minister's call for Europe to increase its "level of ambition" came as the expert committee charged with setting Britain's carbon targets published a report suggesting that higher flight taxes will be necessary to choke off demand for air travel.
The report said Britain could afford to see air travel increasing by up to 140m journeys a year by 2050 without breaching its carbon targets, allowing for the building of runways at Heathrow, Stansted and Edinburgh airports.
But it warned that development at other regional airports such as Gatwick, Birmingham and Newcastle would have to be curbed if growth in aviation was to be kept to 60% rather than the 200% by which it would expand if allowed to go unchecked.
Brown stopped short of suggesting that the EU should increase its offer irrespective of the outcome in Copenhagen, but said an increase in the European target would be "a signal that the world has come round to agree an ambitious deal".
Campaigners and experts including the economist Lord Stern have argued in recent weeks that the EU must increase its offer to unlock a deal because the US president, Barack Obama, constrained by the need to secure domestic legislation, cannot. Lord Stern told the Guardian last night: "The EU can show real leadership and help to bring an agreement in Copenhagen a step closer by committing now to its higher ambition."
He said if all countries confirmed their highest conditional offers, the target for annual emissions of 44bn tonnes by 2020 – which gives a reasonable chance of meeting the goal of limiting global temperature rise to 2C – would be bridged with further commitments of just a few more billion tonnes.
Bryony Worthington, carbon expert and founder of the campaign group Sandbag.org.uk, said: "The prime minister's support for a move to the EU's higher target is very encouraging. With targets on the table from all major countries, the EU can kickstart a leadership race and do much to unlock political tensions in Copenhagen. The move would mean taking on a much more realistic target than the current one, which will be met with almost no effort."
A Polish diplomat at the UN summit in the Danish capital said any unilateral move would not be strategic, as it would give away a significant EU concession without anything in return. The Polish economy is highly dependent on coal and its government has strongly resisted increases in the EU's targets.
The prime minister also said he hoped Labour would be able to match a Tory commitment to cut government emissions by 10% within a year as a contribution to the 10:10 campaign, which is asking individuals, businesses and other organisations to cut their carbon footprint for next year.
Brown said: "We are trying to achieve 10% … throughout Whitehall the message has gone out: 'You've got to save energy, we've got to be more energy-efficient'."
Until now, the government has argued it would be too expensive to cut government emissions by 10% within a year, and some departments that have already reduced their footprint would struggle to cut deeper.
In October, Labour killed a Lib Dem/Tory-backed bill that called for the government to make the 10% cut.
The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has meanwhile signed up City Hall to the 10:10 campaign, as part of his goal to make the capital "the greenest city on Earth". But he stopped short of making a personal pledge.
Additional reporting: Hélène Mulholland
[Environment > Carbon emissions]
US climate agency declares CO2 public danger
Environmental Protection Agency declaration allows it to impose emissions cuts without agreement of reluctant Senate
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 December 2009 20.24 GMT Article history
The Obama administration adopted its climate change plan B today, formally declaring carbon dioxide a public danger so that it can cut greenhouse gas emissions even without the agreement of a reluctant Senate.
The timing of the announcement – in the opening hours of the UN's Copenhagen climate change summit – prevents Barack Obama from arriving at the talks without concrete evidence that America will do its bit to cut the emissions that cause global warming.
"Climate change has now become a household issue," said Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), adding that the evidence of climate change was real and increasingly alarming. "This administration will not ignore science or the law any longer, nor will we ignore the responsibility we owe to our children and our grandchildren."
The announcement gives the EPA a legal basis for capping emissions from major sources such as coal power plants, as well as cars. Jackson said she hoped it would help to spur a deal in Copenhagen.
The EPA action had been seen as a backstop should Congress fail to pass climate change law. Obama and other officials had repeatedly said they would prefer to pass legislation, but that prospect has grown increasingly remote. The House of Representatives narrowly passed a climate change bill in June, but the proposals have stalled in the Senate.
Jackson said the EPA's regulations, which would come into effect from next spring, would not be too onerous, applying only to facilities emitting more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.
The oil and manufacturing industries, which have opposed climate change action, said the move was overly politicised, and warned that the new regulations would be tied up in lawsuits.
The US Chamber of Commerce, also sceptical on global warming, said the move would hurt the economy. "An endangerment finding from the EPA could result in a top-down, command-and-control regime that will choke off growth by adding new mandates to virtually every major construction and renovation project," said Thomas Donohue, the chamber's president.
Jackson is to address the Copenhagen meeting on Wednesday, while Obama will join more than 100 other world leaders in the Danish capital on the final day of the conference, on 18 December.
The endangerment declaration dates from a supreme court decision in 2007 ordering the EPA to make a ruling on whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions were a pollutant subject to the Clean Air Act of the 1970s.
[Environment > Copenhagen Climate change conference 2009]
Gordon Brown: EU cuts must go deeper to get Copenhagen climate deal
Prime minister tells the Guardian he hopes the EU will agree to a cut in emissions of 30% by 2020
Ian Katz, Damian Carrington and John Vidal in Copenhagen
The Guardian, Tuesday 8 December 2009 Article history
Gordon Brown is pushing European leaders to commit to deeper cuts in carbon emissions in an attempt to seal a global deal, he revealed as representatives of 192 countries began negotiations at the climate change summit in Copenhagen.
The prime minister told the Guardian he hoped the EU would agree to cut its output of greenhouse gases by 30% on 1990 levels by 2020 – a cut 10 percentage points deeper than Europe is currently offering. So far, the EU has said it will cut by 30% only if an ambitious global deal is reached.
Brown said: "We've got to make countries recognise that they have to be as ambitious as they say they want to be. It's not enough to say 'I may do this, I might do this, possibly I'll do this'. I want to create a situation in which the European Union is persuaded to go to 30%."
Any move to increase Europe's emissions reduction target would be fiercely resisted by eastern European countries as well as Italy and Austria, who have opposed deeper cuts.
An increase in the European pledge would mean the UK would have to achieve a cut of 42% by 2020, compared with the current British target of 34%. Because the UK is already racing to build renewable energy as fast as it can, the additional cuts would probably require measures such as road charging, increased fuel taxes and tougher emissions standards for cars.
On the opening day of the Copenhagen summit Saudi Arabia's chief climate negotiator, Mohammed al-Sabban, told delegates that the scandal over hacked emails from University of East Anglia researchers had undermined confidence in the science of climate change and would "affect the nature of what can be trusted in the negotiations".
But after lambasting climate deniers as "flat-earth sceptics" and "anti-change Luddites", Brown would say only that he "fundamentally disagrees" with Sabban, who last week said he believed there was no link between human behaviour and warming. "I somehow think that when we get agreement the Saudis will not refuse to be part of it," Brown said.
The prime minister's call for Europe to increase its "level of ambition" came as the expert committee charged with setting Britain's carbon targets published a report suggesting that higher flight taxes will be necessary to choke off demand for air travel.
The report said Britain could afford to see air travel increasing by up to 140m journeys a year by 2050 without breaching its carbon targets, allowing for the building of runways at Heathrow, Stansted and Edinburgh airports.
But it warned that development at other regional airports such as Gatwick, Birmingham and Newcastle would have to be curbed if growth in aviation was to be kept to 60% rather than the 200% by which it would expand if allowed to go unchecked.
Brown stopped short of suggesting that the EU should increase its offer irrespective of the outcome in Copenhagen, but said an increase in the European target would be "a signal that the world has come round to agree an ambitious deal".
Campaigners and experts including the economist Lord Stern have argued in recent weeks that the EU must increase its offer to unlock a deal because the US president, Barack Obama, constrained by the need to secure domestic legislation, cannot. Lord Stern told the Guardian last night: "The EU can show real leadership and help to bring an agreement in Copenhagen a step closer by committing now to its higher ambition."
He said if all countries confirmed their highest conditional offers, the target for annual emissions of 44bn tonnes by 2020 – which gives a reasonable chance of meeting the goal of limiting global temperature rise to 2C – would be bridged with further commitments of just a few more billion tonnes.
Bryony Worthington, carbon expert and founder of the campaign group Sandbag.org.uk, said: "The prime minister's support for a move to the EU's higher target is very encouraging. With targets on the table from all major countries, the EU can kickstart a leadership race and do much to unlock political tensions in Copenhagen. The move would mean taking on a much more realistic target than the current one, which will be met with almost no effort."
A Polish diplomat at the UN summit in the Danish capital said any unilateral move would not be strategic, as it would give away a significant EU concession without anything in return. The Polish economy is highly dependent on coal and its government has strongly resisted increases in the EU's targets.
The prime minister also said he hoped Labour would be able to match a Tory commitment to cut government emissions by 10% within a year as a contribution to the 10:10 campaign, which is asking individuals, businesses and other organisations to cut their carbon footprint for next year.
Brown said: "We are trying to achieve 10% … throughout Whitehall the message has gone out: 'You've got to save energy, we've got to be more energy-efficient'."
Until now, the government has argued it would be too expensive to cut government emissions by 10% within a year, and some departments that have already reduced their footprint would struggle to cut deeper.
In October, Labour killed a Lib Dem/Tory-backed bill that called for the government to make the 10% cut.
The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has meanwhile signed up City Hall to the 10:10 campaign, as part of his goal to make the capital "the greenest city on Earth". But he stopped short of making a personal pledge.
Additional reporting: Hélène Mulholland
[Environment > Carbon emissions]
US climate agency declares CO2 public danger
Environmental Protection Agency declaration allows it to impose emissions cuts without agreement of reluctant Senate
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 December 2009 20.24 GMT Article history
The Obama administration adopted its climate change plan B today, formally declaring carbon dioxide a public danger so that it can cut greenhouse gas emissions even without the agreement of a reluctant Senate.
The timing of the announcement – in the opening hours of the UN's Copenhagen climate change summit – prevents Barack Obama from arriving at the talks without concrete evidence that America will do its bit to cut the emissions that cause global warming.
"Climate change has now become a household issue," said Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), adding that the evidence of climate change was real and increasingly alarming. "This administration will not ignore science or the law any longer, nor will we ignore the responsibility we owe to our children and our grandchildren."
The announcement gives the EPA a legal basis for capping emissions from major sources such as coal power plants, as well as cars. Jackson said she hoped it would help to spur a deal in Copenhagen.
The EPA action had been seen as a backstop should Congress fail to pass climate change law. Obama and other officials had repeatedly said they would prefer to pass legislation, but that prospect has grown increasingly remote. The House of Representatives narrowly passed a climate change bill in June, but the proposals have stalled in the Senate.
Jackson said the EPA's regulations, which would come into effect from next spring, would not be too onerous, applying only to facilities emitting more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.
The oil and manufacturing industries, which have opposed climate change action, said the move was overly politicised, and warned that the new regulations would be tied up in lawsuits.
The US Chamber of Commerce, also sceptical on global warming, said the move would hurt the economy. "An endangerment finding from the EPA could result in a top-down, command-and-control regime that will choke off growth by adding new mandates to virtually every major construction and renovation project," said Thomas Donohue, the chamber's president.
Jackson is to address the Copenhagen meeting on Wednesday, while Obama will join more than 100 other world leaders in the Danish capital on the final day of the conference, on 18 December.
The endangerment declaration dates from a supreme court decision in 2007 ordering the EPA to make a ruling on whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions were a pollutant subject to the Clean Air Act of the 1970s.
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