The European Union restates its commitment to reaching an ambitious, comprehensive and legally binding global climate change treaty for the period after 2012. The EU 'Troika' – Sweden, the European Commission and Spain – welcomes the progress made at the Barcelona climate talks ending today, which provides an improved basis for reaching a strong global deal at the 7-18 December UN climate conference in Copenhagen.

Anders Turesson, chief negotiator for Sweden, current EU President, said:

"The European Union's goal is a fair, comprehensive, legally binding and global climate treaty that covers all countries and is ambitious enough to keep global warming below the danger threshold of 2°C above the pre-industrial temperature."

"It is vital to achieve a strong agreement in Copenhagen that covers all the key elements of the Bali Action Plan. The nations of the world need to take an important step towards a low carbon future. Copenhagen is crucial. "

Artur Runge-Metzger, chief negotiator for the European Commission, added:

"The pace of the negotiations has really accelerated here in Barcelona. Good progress has been made on streamlining the text, but there is still a long way to go to arrive at a fully fledged treaty and we have to recognise that our original hopes for Copenhagen may not be met.
 

"The minimum outcome in Copenhagen must be a framework agreement on the essential building blocks of the new treaty and a deadline for completing it. The agreement must include ambitious emission reduction commitments by developed countries including the United States, adequate action to curb emissions growth by developing countries and a financial deal to assist developing countries both in mitigating their emissions and adapting to climate change. The EU is ready to do everything to complete this work as soon as possible."
 

Alicia Montalvo, chief negotiator for Spain, which takes over the EU Presidency on 1 January, said:

"The European Union is at the forefront of efforts to fight climate change and we are determined to play a leading role in achieving a global, ambitious, comprehensive and binding agreement at the Copenhagen conference. The fruitful technical work done here in Barcelona has given us a stronger basis for progress in Copenhagen."

Background

The European Union is pressing for an ambitious, comprehensive and legally binding global climate treaty that will prevent global warming from reaching the dangerous levels – more than 2°C above the pre-industrial temperature – projected by the scientific community for later this century.

Scientific evidence shows that keeping within this ceiling will require industrialised countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions to 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and developing countries to limit their rapid emissions growth to around 15-30% below business as usual levels in 2020. 
 

The EU has committed unilaterally to cut its emissions to at least 20% 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% provided that 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 a significant increase in additional public and private finance is needed to help developing countries implement ambitious mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Assuming an ambitious agreement is reached, the EU is committed to contributing its fair share of the estimated €22-50 billion in additional international public finance that developing countries will need annually by 2020. All countries, except the least developed, should contribute to this total through an agreed global contribution key based on countries' emission levels and ability to pay. Emission levels should have a considerable weight in the key and this should increase over time.

The EU is also committed to providing its fair share of 'fast-start' financing to help developing countries build up their capacities to combat climate change over the period 2010-2012. The European Commission estimates a total of €5-7 billion could be needed per year over the three years.   

Media contacts:
Eva Lindhé, Swedish Delegation  +46 730 553927
Anna Bäckman, Swedish Delegation  +46 767 913189
Tony Carritt, European Commission   +32 498 982643
Jonathan Murphy, European Commission  +32 485 988826
Lourdes Lázaro Marin, Spanish delegation  607 489 686