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European Union reaches landmark

climate deal, agrees to cut emissions
by 40 per cent by 2030
Updated 24 Oct 2014, 2:11am

PHOTO: Europe hopes

to cut carbon emissions by 40 per cent by 2030. (AAP: Julian Smith)

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MAP: European Union

European Union leaders have struck a deal on a new target to cut

carbon emissions by 40 per cent by 2030, calling it a new global
standard in the fight against climate change.
The agreement also includes 27 per cent targets for the amount of renewable
energy to be in place by 2030 and for energy efficiency gains.
Herman Van Rompuy, who chairs the European Council, the gathering of EU
leaders, said the deal was the "world's most ambitious, cost-effective, fair
climate energy policy agreed".
The accord is "good news for climate, citizens' health, international climate
talks, sustainable jobs, energy security and competitiveness", Mr Van
Rompuy said in another Twitter message.

Talks in Brussels stretched into the small hours of Friday as Poland battled to
spare its coal industry and other states tweaked the guideline text on global
warming to protect varied economic interests.
In the end, an overall target was agreed for the 28-nation bloc to cut its
emissions of carbon in 2030 by at least 40 per cent from levels in the
benchmark year of 1990.
An existing goal of a 20 per cent cut by 2020 has already been nearly met, in
part due to the collapse of communist-era industry in the east.

Critics warn against compromises in climate

fight
European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said the agreement puts
the EU "in the driving seat" ahead of next year's United Nations climate
summit in France.
But environmentalists have said it could still leave the EU struggling to make
the 80 per cent cut by 2050 that its own experts say is needed to limit the rise
in global average temperatures to two degrees Celsius.
They were further disappointed by a softening in the final agreement of goals
for increasing the use of solar, wind and other renewable energy sources and
for improving efficiency through insulation, cleaner engines and the like.
Concerns in Britain and some smaller states about additional EU regulation
that might especially crimp a new expansion of climate-friendly but
controversial nuclear power saw targets for increased renewable use and
energy efficiency softened, diplomats said.
Mr Van Rompuy said the two targets would be for improvements of 27 per
cent, compared to originally proposed goals of 30 per cent.
Portugal and Spain succeeded in getting a harder target for the level of crossborder connections, something they had been pushing France to accept so
that they could export more of their spare energy north into the rest of the
continent.

Australia's emissions target 'not credible

internationally'
Climate advocates say Australia is slipping behind the world even further with
its pledge to cut emissions by at least 5 per cent by 2020.

Deputy chief executive of the Climate Institute, Erwin Jackson, said

independent analysis to date shows the 5 per cent target is not credible
internationally.
"It's weaker than many other major economies and if you look at the actions
that other countries are taking and the commitments that they're making, we
should be moving to at least a 19 per cent target as the Climate Change
Authority recommended," he said.
Mr Jackson said Australia needs to decide what role its domestic actions will
play.
"Are we going to be constructive, are we going to be advancing a target in our
national interest, or are we going to be obstructive and advance a target
which is based solely on the interests of a few selective industries," he said.
He also said Australia needs to move beyond myopic emission targets.
"Because we've had a conversation in Australia for the last few years about
2020, the world is increasingly having a conversation about action post-2020,
and under any reasonable metric, a target of the scale that the EU have
proposed would require Australia to reduce emissions in the order of 40 to 50
per cent by 2030.
"And that's a long way from the current minimum commitment that we
currently have at 5 per cent," he said.