[Focus] The EU's environment PR challenge
HONOR MAHONY
12.06.2007 @ 16:25 CET
EUOBSERVER / CLIMATE TECHNOLOGY - The European Commission's conversion to the green cause has been rather sudden. The fight against climate change was not even on Brussels' list of strategic priorities this time last year while the whole of the first part of the five-year reign of the current commission was devoted to creating jobs.
Emitting fewer greenhouse gases does not mean becoming less competitive, Brussels says (Photo: European Commission)
But this was not the impression given during a meeting of EU leaders earlier this year. At their March summit, traditionally given over to economic questions, EU member states preached the green line and committed themselves to a series of ambitious binding environment goals for the coming years.
Collectively the 27 member states said they would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 (compared to 1990 levels) and ensure that renewable energy would account for 20 percent of energy consumption - with biofuels providing 10 percent of transport consumption.
"We can say to the rest of the world, Europe is taking the lead - you should join us," said a triumphant Jose Manuel Barroso, commission president, after the summit.
German chancellor Angela Merkel, who brokered the talks in her current role as head of the EU, said that the bloc had agreed a "credible package" and that it had paved the way for international action against global warming that could "help save the world from calamity."
The summit commitments come on top of another pledge to reduce the CO2 emissions from new cars from 2012 while the bloc in 2005 set up the world's first ever multi-country emissions trading scheme, under which heavily polluting industries trade carbon credits with less-polluting firms.
What happened to jobs, jobs, jobs?
The change to a green focus has been such that industry commissioner Guenter Verheugen recently complained "Two years ago it was all jobs, jobs, jobs' and now it's climate, climate, climate."
But there was a catalyst for the shift in gear. It reportedly came after the business-friendly and pragmatic commission boss, Jose Manuel Barroso, became persuaded of the likely economic costs if global warming is ignored.
The facts were supplied by British economist Nicholas Stern who last October published a report concluding that global warming was man-made and it would make sound business sense to invest in trying to halt it now. The two met in Brussels in late autumn last year to discuss the issue and the economist is now one of a group of expert advisers to Mr Barroso on climate change.
A subsequent UN report painting an equally gloomy picture on the environment further spurred the commission on.
In addition, being concerned about global warming has the advantage of being popular among EU citizens who regularly say they want Brussels to do more for the environment.
The green cause has also become somewhat of a raison d'κtre for the EU, which lost its way after its flagship constitution was rejected and has had difficulty making good on its jobs task.
Being green versus being business friendly
But member states, as a whole, have been less enthusiastic about their green commitments, remaining largely unconvinced that it is possible to both be environmentally friendly and competitive.
Several are already falling behind on their individual targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions under the international Kyoto Protocol while the European Commission has been engaged in a tough battle over the last months to get countries to provide meaningful reduction plans for the next phase of Kyoto beginning in 2012.
It has had to revise the vast majority of national allocation plans as they are known, setting much more stringent caps, and is being threatened with legal action by Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Hungary has also indicated it is considering legal action, while Germany mooted the court path but then changed its mind.
The first phase of the Emissions Trading Scheme although recently hailed by top environmental economists as a success suffered because member states granted too many pollution allowances to industry.
This generosity on national governments' part meant the bottom fell out of the carbon market with prices plunging from heights of 30 per carbon tonne to around 7 by the end of 2006. On top of this, British media recently reported that power companies are making a profit from the system by selling unneeded permits.
"Though it has been a success we have undergone a steep learning curve, and we have seen some windfall profits being made by power companies," EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas' spokesperson was recently quoted as saying by Greenwire.
The cracks in the EU's green faηade and the tension over how to keep the EU competitive in the face of rising economic giants China and India could also be seen during the March environment summit - although the finally agreed goals later went on to make headlines around the world.
The run up to the summit itself was characterised by a string of stories about how reluctant governments were to commit themselves to strong targets and to make them binding. Poor member states, particularly from central and eastern Europe, said they did not want to be hampered by what they saw as growth-hindering green targets.
The tussle continued up to the eleventh hour during the summit. Both Poland and the Czech Republic put up a strong defence against setting binding targets. Other national issues came into play as well: France asked for nuclear energy to be recognised as a renewable energy; while Luxembourg pointed out it did not have enough space to grow biofuel crops and Malta noted that its tiny size would make it difficult to carry out any of the measures.
Making the case for being green
Although the summit's conclusions are clear and binding how to achieve them is rather less so. Over the coming months the commission is due to come with a set of legislative proposals to make the goals a reality.
Aside from the law-making route however, its main task will be persuading EU companies and member states that acting now to fight global warming will give them the cutting edge in the future.
With several of the world's other major players the US, China and India so far refusing to dance to the EU's tune on climate change (the bloc says it will reduce CO2 emissions by 30 percent by the end of the next decade if the rest of the world comes on board) the pressure on the EU to practice what it preaches and to convince others that being green is compatible with being competitive is only likely to grow.