French Presidency Heads for Knotty EU Climate Deal
Date: 16-Jun-08
Country: FRANCE
Author: Muriel Boselli
It hopes to step up solidarity among member states on energy security during its six-month stint at the head of the EU.
"The French presidency will place absolute priority on climate and energy," French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said at the energy council last week.
The EU presented in January draft reforms to the bloc's energy sector, to implement ambitious measures to fight climate change agreed by EU leaders last year.
That 2007 landmark package set binding targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by a fifth and consume 20 percent of all energy from renewable sources by 2020, but EU lawmakers and 27 governments must still back draft directives to implement it.
There is an urgent need for a deal to be clinched under the French presidency if the EU wants to be the kingmaker of any global climate change deal by the end of 2009 in Copenhagen.
"Europe (must) stay the course, have confidence in the judgments we made last year and deliver upon them," said John Ashton, climate change representative at Britain's foreign ministry, referring to "fragile" consensus in the light of a global economic slowdown and soaring energy costs.
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?
"The number of hurdles is countless," a source at the French Environment Ministry told Reuters, adding that a key issue was the short negotiation period.
"Most texts came out on January 23 and we need to secure a deal in December," the source said, adding negotiations based on such complex texts would usually take two to three years.
"This is close to a 'mission impossible', but we are going to have to do it," the source said. "It will be very tricky."
The Kyoto protocol, a pact agreed by governments to reduce CO2 emitted by rich countries to at least five percent below 1990 levels, will end at the end of 2012.
"To have a new treaty by the end of 2012, we need a political agreement... by 2009 or 2010 at the latest...otherwise the carbon market will collapse," the ministry source added.
The EU set up a vanguard carbon market in January 2005 under which around 12,000 factories and power stations were given free carbon quotas.
Under the EU plan, the Emissions Trading Scheme will be extended to more sectors such as chemicals and aluminium. While quotas will be fully auctioned from 2013 to the power sector, auctioning will be gradually phased-in for other sectors.
SUPPLY SECURITY
France's second priority is energy supply security.
"We put very high on the agenda energy security," said Sophie Galey-Leruste, head of energy at the Finance Ministry.
In a report commissioned by the French government on supply security ahead of the country's EU presidency, the former head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Claude Mandil, urged more EU energy solidarity.
The report called for increased investment in energy production and transport infrastructure, greater regulatory harmonisation and more transparency on energy stocks.
"I propose that we say very clearly that a problem occurring in one country is a problem for the entire union," Mandil said, adding the idea of solidarity was, however, far from winning unanimous support.
Mandil also urged member states to speak with one voice.
"Heads of state in Europe rush to the Kremlin to negotiate bilateral deals and come back triumphantly saying they have improved the supply security of their country," Mandil said.
The environment ministry said the report was a good basis to make new proposals on energy security but did not foresee new legislative texts on the issue.
"We will transmit to the commission what we will extract from the Mandil report ahead of its energy strategic review that should be published in November," a government source said.
France also says it hopes to get the thorny issue of "unbundling", an EU proposal that requires vertically integrated energy firms to sell off their transport assets, ou