THE EUROPEAN Parliament has rejected a key report that would have toughened the EU stance on greenhouse gas emissions.
A rebellion by British Conservative MEPs helped to swing the vote against a tougher target on how much carbon emissions should be cut by 2020, but was not decisive, according to insiders.
The vote does not end green campaigners’ hopes of a more ambitious emissions reduction target – a higher cut of 30 per cent by 2020 on 1990 levels rather than 20 per cent – as the issue will continue to be debated, but is a setback.
The political wrangling involved a series of amendments, proposed by conservative groupings of MEPs, that would have weakened the resulting resolution to an extent that was not acceptable to the Green MEP group.
Greens in the parliament will now try to push for the tougher target in future votes and through the involvement of member states and the European Commission.
Nick Stern, former UK treasury economist and now chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said of the vote result: “It’s a missed opportunity and the EU risks falling behind in the economic growth story of the future.”
When the vote was scheduled to take place, on June 23rd, a survey of Tory MEPs found that the leader of the UK Conservative party in the European parliament, Martin Callanan, was advising his colleagues to vote against the higher target and several were planning to comply. Only one of those contacted in advance of the vote said she would definitely vote for the higher target.
Several MEPs echoed Mr Callanan, who said: “Conservative MEPs have always been sceptical of the EU unilaterally increasing its target to 30 per cent without a worldwide agreement. I am in favour of increasing the EU target to 30 per cent . . . where our competitor countries take similar action.
“Increasing our own targets while the rest of the world does nothing will have virtually no measurable effect on global emissions, because it will force large EU emitters to relocate to other countries outside the EU . . . We are also concerned that the higher carbon emission costs resulting from an increased target will feed through into energy price increases for domestic consumers,” he said.
Andy Atkins, executive director of Friends of the Earth, said: “Tory MEPs are defying the latest scientific advice and playing fast and loose with our future. Preventing the necessary action on climate change also goes against EU economic interests. Scores of Europe’s leading companies back a 30 per cent cut . . . because it will create new jobs and business opportunities.” – (Guardian service)