A draft document indicates European Union leaders are preparing to set an October deadline for agreeing on the bloc’s 2030 climate and energy goals.
According to the draft seen by Reuters Newsagency, at a meeting going on today, “The European Council will take stock of progress made on these issues at its meeting in June with a view to taking a final decision on the new policy framework as quickly as possible and no later than October 2014.”
Business and governments have been split on whether leaders should make an early agreement on plans for 2030 in the run-up to global talks on tackling climate change.
Reuters reports the EC, the EU executive, in January outlined a binding 2030 goal to cut carbon emissions by 40 per cent compared with 1990 levels.
The bloc has already almost met its 2020 target of a 20 per cent reduction.
Environment ministers from 13 member states including Germany, France and Britain have urged EU leaders to agree on a position in order to put pressure on other powers to ready their own plans ahead of negotiations late next year on a global climate pact to take effect from 2020.
However EU diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, have for months played down the chances of an agreement before June.
Poland and other east European countries with heavy reliance on carbon-intensive coal want to wait until China and the United States unveil their proposals, which all nations have agreed must be ready by April 2015.
The summit this week is calling on the EC to do further analysis on how the 2030 goal will impact each member state and design policies that “result in fair-effort sharing”, according to the latest draft for the summit, dated March 19.
Scientists and environmental campaigners have urged the bloc to continue its leadership in tackling climate change.
They want this to ensure that global temperature rises are kept below the two degree Celsius level that United Nations-backed scientists say is needed to prevent a huge increase in droughts, flooding and rising sea levels.
They also want the EU to agree on its 2030 goals ahead of a September meeting in New York convened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who aims to catalyse support among world leaders for the climate pact.
Divisions between politicians are mirrored by divisions in Europe’s business community.
Big power companies want certainty to help plan their huge upfront investments, and some other companies also say that jobs in clean technology manufacturing will be lost abroad without a decision this week to set stronger policies.
“We call upon you (leaders) to swiftly adopt a robust package during your Council negotiations this week, so as to send a clear signal to your peers across the globe and most importantly to business leaders and investors doing business in Europe,” the Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group said in a letter.
The group’s members include businesses ranging from Coca-Cola to Royal Dutch Shell and for the first time include several Polish businesses and research groups, including engineering consultancy Buro Happold and technology producer Carrier Polska, which is part of United Technologies Corporation.
Reuters reports heavy industrial companies such as chemical producers and steelmakers are urging caution to ensure they remain competitive with rivals in regions with looser environmental rules.
“Europe must not again impose on itself unilateral CO2 reduction targets which no one else follows,” 60 CEOs of European steelmakers including ArcelorMittal and ThyssenKrupp wrote in an open letter to the EC sent last week.
Scientists at Germany’s Potsdam Institute said the EU could take the lead in setting 2030 goals at little extra cost, because it had already set policies in place that would lead to a 30 per cent cut.
EU nations are among a handful of industrialised economies that have committed to binding emission reduction targets to 2020, while other major emitters have pledged only voluntary goals.
The committed group accounts for less than 15 per cent of global emissions.
