The Swedish presidency of the European Union and the European Commission welcomed the steps forward taken at the United Nations climate change negotiations ending today in Bangkok, but underlined that the pace of progress and the level of ambition need to be considerably raised to reach a strong international climate agreement at the Copenhagen climate conference in December.

The European Union is seeking an ambitious, global and comprehensive binding deal in Copenhagen that builds on the Kyoto Protocol and involves all Parties to the UN climate change convention, including the United States. At the Bangkok meeting the EU expressed its preference for a single treaty as the best way to reach these goals.

"The two weeks of negotiations here in Bangkok have made some progress, in particular as regards the streamlining and shortening of the text," said Anders Turesson, chief climate negotiator for Sweden. "Parties have finally got down to real and lively negotiations in a constructive mood. Notable is progress in a number of areas of support for developing countries, such as assistance in building up their capacities to deal with climate change, a framework for action on adaptation to climate change and cooperation on technology. This will facilitate our deliberations in the two months that remain until Copenhagen.

"However, it is also clear that the pace of progress is insufficient. The negotiations still lack focus on the core issues that need to be resolved, such as the depth of emission cuts to be undertaken by industrialised countries and action by developing countries to curb their emissions growth. This in turn makes it difficult to discuss financial assistance in concrete terms."

"Time is running out. The negotiations will need to be greatly accelerated at the final preparatory session next month in Barcelona. In addition, other high-level international meetings taking place over the coming weeks will have to provide clear political guidance to negotiators to step up their level of ambition for Copenhagen."

Artur Runge-Metzger, chief negotiator for the European Commission, said: "There has been no stronger supporter of the Kyoto Protocol than the European Union. It is largely thanks to our determination that the Protocol is in force today. And we are well on target to meet or even over-achieve our Kyoto commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8 per cent ."

He added: "In Copenhagen we want a legally binding agreement that ensures participation by both the United States and advanced developing countries. A deal that excluded one or more major emitters would not be able to prevent global warming from reaching dangerous levels.

"The new agreement should build on the lessons learned. In recent years we have invested heavily in the nuts and bolts of effective action against climate change, such as robust target setting, a common accounting and monitoring framework, flexible mechanisms and strong compliance systems. There is no need to reinvent the wheel with the Copenhagen agreement."

Background  

The EU is pressing for an ambitious and comprehensive global climate agreement that will prevent global warming from reaching the dangerous levels – more than 2°C above the pre-industrial temperature - projected by the scientific community. Scientific evidence shows that keeping within this ceiling will require industrialised countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions to 25-40 per cent  below 1990 levels by 2020 and developing countries to limit their rapid emissions growth to around 15-30 per cent  below business as usual levels in 2020. 
The European Union has committed unilaterally to cut its emissions to at least 20 per cent  below 1990 levels by 2020, and is already implementing this reduction through a package of legislative measures that became law earlier this year and an extensive programme to improve energy efficiency. It has pledged to scale up its emissions reduction to 30 per cent  provided that in Copenhagen industrialised countries as a group commit to comparable cuts and economically advanced developing countries contribute adequately to a global deal according to their respectively capabilities and responsibilities.

The EU recognises that industrialised countries must increase their financial assistance to help developing mitigate and adapt to climate change, and is committed to contributing its fair share. EU heads of state and government are expected to further elaborate their position on financing at their next summit on 29-30 October in Brussels.