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Gormley Welcomes Agreement on EU Climate Change Package
“I welcome agreement on the EU climate package as the first step towards a new global climate agreement. As part of this deal 27 countries have unilaterally taken on new legally binding post-Kyoto greenhouse gas emission targets,” so said the Minister for the Environment, Heritage & Local Government today (12 Dec. 08) at the Poznan UN conference on climate change in Poland.
Europe said that we would unilaterally reduce our emissions by 20 per cent compared to 1990. We have set out exactly how we will do that in detail.
Now we must go further. Europe is ready to step up to a 30 per cent reduction as part of a global climate agreement, which we are currently negotiating in Poznan. I hope that this move by Europe will encourage other major countries to propose their own post-Kyoto reduction targets and other new commitments. At the Poznan UN conference we hope to accelerate the international negotiations to agree this global climate deal in 12 months.
I understand and recognise the concerns of many who had hoped for a more robust deal, and in negotiations Ireland had supported the Presidency and the Commission in pushing for a package that was stronger than that finally agreed. Indeed, the chief negotiator for the Presidency, Mogens Peter Carl, stated last week that Ireland had been exemplary in the role it played in the negotiations.
In the negotiations, Ireland had supported full auctioning of carbon credits in line with the polluter pays principle. We also supported maintaining the provision for CDM at the level proposed in the Package.
However compromise was necessary on both of these to ensure that a climate change deal was struck, and it will still achieve the 20 per cent reduction in emissions. That is the single most important element in tackling climate change.
The package represents an enormous challenge for Ireland. We must now press on with the serious task of transforming ourselves into a low carbon society and economy.
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