Luxembourg - European Union environment ministers on Wednesday agreed a watered-down negotiating position ahead of international talks on fighting climate change by putting off a key debate on billions of euros in emissions permits, diplomats said. The agreement is a breakthrough after finance ministers on Tuesday failed to reach agreement on several other key points.
The agreement commits the EU to cutting its emissions of greenhouse gases "by 80-95 per cent by 2050 compared to 1990 levels," as recommended by UN experts.
But that pledge will only hold if other developed economies make similar efforts, since it is "in the context of necessary reductions (...) by developed countries as a group."
It also commits the EU to pushing for global emissions limits on airlines and shipping companies of 10 per cent and 20 per cent respectively below 2005 levels.
The agreement stresses that the bloc is not planning to bring in unilateral limits on the two sectors, since its stance is only "for negotiating purposes" and any agreement should be enforced "globally, in a manner that ensures a level playing field."
And it puts off a fight between Eastern and Western member states over the issue of up to 150 billion dollars' worth of emissions permits which Eastern states gained under the Kyoto Protocol.
Western states fear that the Eastern countries could undermine global efforts to fight climate change if they are allowed to sell their credits internationally.
Wednesday's deal said that the sale of such permits could "effect" future climate-change efforts, striking out an earlier text which said that they could "undermine" them, and said that the EU will "consider options in the light of discussions with other parties."
