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A Confused Persons guide to the Copenhagen Climate Agreement and its consequences on EU Energy Policy
(21 December 2009)
The Copenhagen climate conference concluded on Friday with a “more-or-less” agreement. Almost all countries were able to sign up to the understanding reached, although some less developed countries, led by Sudan, declined to do so on the grounds that it was insufficiently far-reaching and ambitious. So finally, the Conference “took note” of the Agreement.
In short, the agreement reached was as follows:
- Agreement of the objective of limiting warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels
- Agreement that specific reduction targets were necessary for developed countries and that “mitigation action” were needed for developing countries and that the targets that the countries were willing to commit to (there was no agreement that these targets would then be in any way legally binding) would be provided to the UN Conference follow-up by February 1, 2010
- Agreement that the developing countries would need to provide finance to developing countries, with a first “fast-start” (US$ 30 billion) for 2010-2012 and longer term finance of US$ 100 billion yearly in 2020, both to be focused on the least developed countries, such as small island developing States and Africa.
- Agreement on a revision of the agreement by 2015.
Clearly this is a disappointment for the EU, which will now have to decide exactly how large a reduction to commit to by 2020, especially in the light of the United States’ voluntary commitment to cut emissions by 4% compared to 1990 levels by 2020. It is worth noting that the reduction commitments that countries signalled wiliness to offer would not limit warming to 2°C according to the International Panel on Climate Change.
The EU has already committed by a 20% reduction by 2020, and had signalled a willingness to move to -30% if an effective international agreement could be reached. It will also have to decide which energy and/or emissions trading measures to introduce in order to ensure that whichever target it accepts will be complied with: further measures on renewable energy? Legally binding energy efficiency targets? Changes to the ETS system?
Equally, the EU will have to decide how to raise and spend the 10bn Euros it has promised the least developed countries over the next three years; general budget funds? ETS?
All these issues will be discussed at the 5th Annual EU Energy Law and Policy Conference, taking place on January 27-28 in Brussels, where speakers including Matthias Ruete, Director-General of the European Commission’s DG Energy and Transport and Jos Delbeke, Deputy-Director General DG Environment and one of the EU’s top negotiators at Copenhagen, will examine the consequences on energy companies of these developments.
For more information on the conference, click here.
Other articles from December:
Günter Oettinger has been announced as the Commissioner candidate for energy (14/12/2009)
He is 56 (born 1953), and is presently the Minister President of Baden-Württemburg and Chairman of the CDU party in Baden-Württemburg (the third-largest German State with a population of nearly 11 million; main cities Stuttgart, Heildelberg, Mannheim; main companies Daimler, Porsche, Bosch, Carl Zeiss, SAP). Oettting...
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The Commission has announced the winners in the tender for the European Economic Recovery Programme (14/12/2009)
At the height of the economic crisis in May this year the European Council agreed to use €3.98 billion in unspent EU funds, particularly unused funds from the agricultural budget, for gas and electricity infrastructure projects (€2.365 billion), offshore wind energy projects (€565 million) and carbon capture and st...
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Council and Parliament reach a first-reading agreement on the new energy efficiency Directives on Buildings and labeling (14/12/2009)
Agreement has been reached on an important set of Directives that will introduce the following most important changes:
Buildings Directive
all new buildings in the EU will have to be “nearly zero energy” by 2020 and for buildings occupied by public authorities by 2018. Member States must draw up nat...
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The EU officially joins the IRENA international renewable agency (14/12/2009)
The idea of IRENA, an international agency to support and promote the development of renewable energy worldwide thought the sharing of expertise and technology, was floated and developed by the German government some years ago. It has now developed into a fully-fledged international body, counting 137 member countrie...
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The Energy Council of Energy Council has agreed that Ljubljana, Slovenia will be the seat of the new ACER regulators agency (14/12/2009)
According to the founding regulation of ACER, the Agency needs to be fully operational as of 3 March 2011. Conclusions of the Council available here....
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DG TREN’s Director of Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Energy Technology outlines vision for a 2050 energy policy (14/12/2009)
The second Strategic Energy Review of the Commission announced that the third Review, programmed for 2010 would focus on “Deep structural change such as carbon-free electricity generation, or a radical technological shift such as breaking transport's dependence on oil will take considerably more time but require c...
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