Members of an African enviromental group sing and dance at Climate Conference in Copenhagen, where trade body BusinessEurope has been accused of undermining climate talks with strong lobbying. Photo: AFP
BusinessEurope, the collective of European business groups, has written directly to Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, urging him not to allow increased emissions cuts from 20pc to 30pc by 2020.
European leaders will meet at the end of this week to decide whether to tightened targets across the continent as the Copenhagen summit works towards a global agreement.
Related Articles
UN watchdog tells US ‘show me the money’
Brown wants EU to cut emissions by 30pc
How much will it cost?
Lord Adonis: We can cut greenhouse gas emissions without travelling less
Tony Blair: Copenhagen climate summit must not be about 'percentages'
Ban Ki-moon: China is essential to climate change dealThe letter was sent after Gordon Brown said the UK was prepared to sign up to cuts of 30pc to show the country's commitment to an international deal.
Folker Franz, senior environmental adviser for BusinessEurope, said the group would not be opposed in principal to 30pc cuts if all countries were prepared to take an aggressive stance to limit their emissions, protect intellectual property and ensure a level playing field for internationally traded goods.
However, this is looking unlikely given the current proposals on the table, he added, giving rise to concerns about how European companies will compete with those in developing nations not bound by tough carbon reduction regulations.
British negotiators have already admitted that they are not requiring developing countries to accept any binding targets on reducing their emissions.
"In the absence of a global agreement incorporating these commitments, the EU must not in any way increase its unilateral carbon reduction requirements," Jurgen Thumann, President of BusinessEurope wrote.
Environmental groups reacted angrily to the letter, with the WWF and Greenpeace accusing the group of undermining the aims on the conference.
"European leaders must not pay attention to BusinessEurope's outdated attitudes. If they listen to this special pleading not only will they be committing the world to a temperature rise way above two degrees, they will also be ignoring the multitude of forward-thinking companies who are keen to embrace the opportunities presented by a low carbon economy," said Jason Anderson, Head of EU Climate and Energy Policy at the WWF.
The plea comes at a crucial time in the negotiations, as poor nations reacted angrily to a leaked draft text that appears to show the UK, US and Denmark arguing that people in rich countries should be permitted to emit nearly twice as much as those in developing countries.
"It shows that business in the developed countries is once again out for itself," said one delegate from the G77 developing nations.
Source:telegraph.co.uk/
No comments:
Post a Comment