Earth Equity News

Europe Bypassed on Road to Copenhagen. By James Kanter, NYTimes, December 2, 2009. "No political entity has pushed harder for the Copenhagen conference on climate change to succeed than the European Union. But just days before the opening of the United Nations-sponsored meeting, the Europeans have been largely pushed to the sidelines, watching as the world's two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, China and the United States, seek to set the rules of the game. 'That's of course the unfortunate situation for Copenhagen,' said Jo Leinen, a German member of the European Parliament who is leading the chamber's delegation to the conference that is intended to follow up on the soon-to-expire Kyoto Protocol. 'It's turning into a bit of a ping-pong match between China and the United States, with each just looking at the other,' he said.

"The United States snubbed Kyoto because fast-emerging China and India could grow without facing restrictions on their emissions. But the E.U. sped ahead anyway, developing a plethora of new targets, subsidies and mechanisms to comply with the treaty, including a complicated system to cap carbon dioxide and to trade emissions permits. Almost overnight, London's financial district became a global hub for trading in greenhouse gases. Makers of windmills in Denmark flourished. Innovative solar industries sprang up in Germany and Spain... So far, New Zealand is the only country outside Europe to have passed into law a national plan to trade emissions, leaving the bloc looking increasingly isolated... Last year, in a bold move to stamp its environmental policies on the rest of the world, the E.U. required all airlines arriving or leaving from its airports to buy some pollution credits beginning in 2012. But the move infuriated Washington, which said it risked breaking international aviation rules by forcing non-European airlines into the system.

"Mistrust between Europe and the United States lingers even after President Barack Obama pledged right after his election victory that the United States would finally tackle greenhouse gases. This summer, the Europeans were particularly irked by a U.S. decision to negotiate with China bilaterally rather than to come to Bonn, where climate talks under the U.N. umbrella were under way at the same time. The Europeans regard the United Nations as the best forum to ensure developing countries rally behind the treaty-making process. In October, E.U. leaders agreed to pay a share into a global fund that would be worth $100 billion annually by 2020. E.U. nations could not agree on how much should be contributed from the public purse, bitterly disappointing environmental campaigners and U.N. officials. But the move marked the first formal recognition that rich countries responsible for the vast majority of accumulated greenhouse gases will need to pick up the bill to help poor countries adapt to the effects of climate change."