EU to back cap-and-trade as IPCC squabbles

The European Union yesterday set out its position ahead of the UN's Climate Change Conference in Bali next month. MEPs voted in favour of a resolution demanding binding emission reduction targets and a global carbon cap-and-trade system.

The resolution, which sets out the EU's core targets for the conference, calls for global emission reductions of at least 50 per cent by 2050 based on 1990 levels; binding targets for all industrialised countries, including the US; "fair and proportionate" targets for emerging economies; and a global cap-and-trade system.

It also calls for greater investment in adaptation measures, more effective incentives to tackle deforestation and the expansion of the UN's Clean Development Mechanism for funding green projects in developing countries. It demands that any international agreement on a framework to replace Kyoto is reached by 2009 at the latest.

The adoption of the resolution confirms that the EU is on a collision course with the US, which has repeatedly rejected binding emission reduction targets, ahead of the conference in Bali.

Despite having signalled that they will countenance binding targets if the US signs up, China and India may also oppose elements of the resolution, which calls for more economically advanced developing nations "to begin emission or carbon intensity reductions as soon their development permits, at the latest by 2020".

The vote came as reports emerged that the meeting this week of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to develop a summation of its three most recent reports was making painfully slow progress.

According to a Reuters report citing sources close to the Valencia talks, the US, Russia and Saudi Arabia are holding up negotiations on what should be included in the 20-page summary document, with delegates taking more than an hour to agree on some sentences.

The US in particular has been repeatedly accused of watering down official reports on climate change and obstructing international negotiations on the topic.

The report, which summarises the IPCC's three reports on climate change and the required mitigation measures, and is expected to provide an important reference point for the UN's Bali negotiations, was expected to be published today but is now unlikely to be released until tomorrow, with the panel likely to work through the night to reach an agreement.