Archived press release

Eu environment ministers face climate challenge

19 June 1997

PRESS CONFERENCE: 10.15am, Thursday, 19 June 1997
Luxembourg City Council bus parked in front of EU Council
of Minister's Building, Centre Europeen,
Luxembourg-Kirchberg

EU Environment Ministers are being challenged by Friends of the Earth International to set tough targets for controlling the gases that cause dangerous climate change. The EU has previously claimed to be a leader in the international climate negotiations (due to culminate in the setting of legally binding reduction targets in Kyoto in December) but EU greenhouse gas emissions are on an upward trend. Friends of the Earth International is calling on EU environment ministers to adopt a 20% CO2 reduction target for 2005, as outlined in the AOSIS [1] proposal.

At the March Environment Council, ministers struggled to agree a negotiating position for Kyoto, eventually coming up with a 15% reduction of a 'basket' of three gases (CO2,methane and nitrous oxide) by 2010. This figure is dwarfed by the 50 to 70 per cent reductions needed to stabilise atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and to avoid dangerous climate change [2]. A full briefing from Friends of the Earth International is attached.

Of the three new governments which have come into office since the March Council, two(the UK and France) claim to have a strong environmental agenda so this Council offers a unique opportunity to put the EU into a real leadership position on climate change.

Ute Collier, Climate Change Researcher at Friends of the Earth International, said:

"It's time for EU environment ministers to stop dragging their feet and set a strong emissions reduction target for 2005. Emission reductions will not only have environmental benefits since investments in energy efficiency, renewables and public transport create lots of jobs. It's time for member states to recognise that tackling climate change is an opportunity not a sacrifice."

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] AOSIS is the Association of Small Island States which has currently proposed a cut of 20 per cent of carbon dioxide in developed countries by 2005. AOSIS members include many of those countries at most risk from dangerous climate change.

[2] This is the level of required emission reductions identified by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN appointed advisory panel under which over 2000 scientists collaborate.

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