By Mark John
BRUSSELS, (Reuters) – European Union leaders were set on Thursday to agree a timetable for action to combat climate change that will enable the bloc to set the pace in global talks next year.
The EU sees itself as a world leader in the fight against global warming after member states agreed last year to cut emissions by 2020 and increase the share of wind, solar, hydro and wave power in electricity output by the same date.
But failure to agree on the details by this time next year would delay EU laws and weaken the bloc in United Nations talks on curbing emissions with other countries, including the United States, in Copenhagen in November 2009.
The 27 EU member states are expected to agree during a two-day summit in Brussels to enact legislation by next March to meet their green targets.
Te summit will also endorse calls for more transparency in financial markets following the global credit crisis and review a Franco-German plan to boost EU ties with Mediterranean states.
Highlighting the risks that have dented European growth forecasts, the euro hit another record high of $1.56 on Thursday and oil prices hovered near a peak of $110 a barrel.
But green issues will dominate the summit.
EU leaders are aware that other countries are also preparing their economies and industries for tougher climate change rules to come into force after the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol, which aims to reduce greenhouse gases that cause climate change, ends in 2012.
“The United States has started to invest in eco-technology and in renewables,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told Italy’s Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper.
“When they decide to do it on a massive scale, it will be hard for Europe to compete, at least if it doesn’t decide to step on the accelerator right now.”
Aside from cutting emissions by at least one-fifth by 2020 from 1990 levels, EU states have agreed to use 20 percent of renewable energy sources in power production and 10 percent of biofuels from crops in transport by the same date.
WASTELAND FEARS
Environmental pressure group Greenpeace called the emissions target “way short of the mark”. Referring to an EU paper warning that climate change could exacerbate global security risks, it urged the bloc to focus on the root cause of the problem.
“Competition for dwindling natural resources, climate migrations, conflicts and humanitarian disasters are all very real dangers. But EU leaders must act now to … to prevent the worst effects of climate change instead of treating the symptoms,” Greenpeace said in a statement.
EU states are still divided over how to handle the needs of energy-intensive industries such as steel, cement and aluminium, how to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from cars and whether to break up Europe’s big power companies.
They also face mounting doubts about their biofuels target. Scientists and economists question the environmental and social benefits and the effect on soaring food prices.
“What we should do is to harmonise our interests related to environmental protection and climate protection on the one hand, and keep Europe competitive on the other hand,” Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra said in a telephone interview.
France and others oppose a full “unbundling” of utilities, while some fear the cost of tackling fight global warming could drive industry out of Europe, leaving an industrial wasteland.
In the newspaper interview, Barroso defended his support for moves to break up vertically integrated power groups into smaller firms but noted a final decision was not due until June.
EU leaders are also due to back calls for a global voluntary code of conduct for sovereign wealth funds, the large pools of capital controlled by governments whose investments in foreign markets have prompted concerns about their political motives.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are also due to brief the summit on a plan to create a “Union for the Mediterranean” in July, which Paris has greatly watered down at Berlin’s insistence.
Diplomats in Paris said on Tuesday France and Germany had settled their differences over the plan to create a new forum to promote trade and cooperation with the EU’s southern neighbours.
