EU leaders are set for difficult talks as they meet this week (29-30 October) to reach an agreement on funding under a new climate treaty ahead of the UN-led Copenhagen conference in December. As Copenhagen approaches, the pressure is on to find consensus at the highest political level on the exact figures that the EU is willing to put on the table to secure a new climate treaty. The bloc has been postponing the decision since last spring, and the June summit settled on hammering out all the details at the October European Council. Nevertheless, it appears increasingly unlikely that EU heads of state and government will be able to present concrete sums to fund emissions reductions and climate adaptation measures in developing countries after finance ministers last week failed to find agreement. The talks stalled on objections from Eastern European member states, which want upfront funding before the climate treaty starts in 2013 to be voluntary.
As Copenhagen approaches, the pressure is on to find consensus at the highest political level on the exact figures that the EU is willing to put on the table to secure a new climate treaty. The bloc has been postponing the decision since last spring, and the June summit settled on hammering out all the details at the October European Council.
Nevertheless, it appears increasingly unlikely that EU heads of state and government will be able to present concrete sums to fund emissions reductions and climate adaptation measures in developing countries after finance ministers last week failed to find agreement. The talks stalled on objections from Eastern European member states, which want upfront funding before the climate treaty starts in 2013 to be voluntary.
The EU should look into pouring a high proportion of carbon revenues into energy efficiency, but not before an institutional framework to reallocate the money efficiently is in place, Richard Cowart, director of European programmes for the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP), told EurActiv in an interview. "A successful cap-and-trade programme will be designed as a market-based overlay on an entire suit of clean energy policies," Cowart stressed, pointing out that as an advisor to cap-and-trade designers in the US, he learned from experience that three-quarters of targeted emission reductions would need to come from complementary policies. The highest priority should be given to energy efficiency, where countries across the globe are underperforming, the energy advisor argued. "Every time there is a research decision to be made, the first question should be, 'can we [... ] meet this need through deeper investment in energy efficiency rather than adding additional supply?" he stressed.
"A successful cap-and-trade programme will be designed as a market-based overlay on an entire suit of clean energy policies," Cowart stressed, pointing out that as an advisor to cap-and-trade designers in the US, he learned from experience that three-quarters of targeted emission reductions would need to come from complementary policies.
The highest priority should be given to energy efficiency, where countries across the globe are underperforming, the energy advisor argued.
"Every time there is a research decision to be made, the first question should be, 'can we [... ] meet this need through deeper investment in energy efficiency rather than adding additional supply?" he stressed.
