Martin Bursik back from Japan and the US
The Czech Environment Minister Martin Bursík returned this morning from the EU delegation's meeting with Japanese and US representatives about the form of the new agreement on climate protection that is to be concluded in Copenhagen, Denmark in December this year.
At the meeting Minister Bursík was accompanied (within the scope of the so-called Troika) by the Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren, who will replace him in July as President of the EU Environment Council, and European Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas (who was represented in Japan by his Head of Cabinet, Nancy Kontou).
In Tokyo, the European delegation among other things negotiated with Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura; Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone; Environment Minister Tetsuo Saito; Senior Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Sanae Takaichi; and with the shadow Environment Minister for the Democratic Party of Japan, Tomiko Okazaki.
In the USA, led by Martin Bursík, the delegation negotiated with the likes of Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change; Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); Chief Climate Negotiator for the USA, Todd Stern; and Senator John Kerry, who is to be one of the most significant figures in the Congress in relation to preparation of new climate-protection legislation.
"With annual emissions of 1.6 billion tonnes of CO2ekv., Japan is the sixth largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world. It is therefore a fundamental partner for the future of the agreement on climate protection," Environment Minister Martin Bursík said today at a press conference following his return from the meeting.
"We do, of course, want to hear a clear statement from our partners from the industrial countries as to their medium-term greenhouse gas emission reduction obligation until 2020, in the same way that we in Europe have clearly stated that by 2020 we will reduce our emissions by 30% provided other significant emitters become involved," Martin Bursík said when describing the key topic of the meeting. "This obligation must be an emission reduction of between 25% and 40%. Otherwise, as indicated by data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it will not be possible to stabilise global temperatures below the two-degree growth mark by 2100," the Minister added.
For the time being Japan is not far off and is examining six potential scenarios from +6% to -25%. "According to Chief Cabinet Secretary Kawamura, the Japanese should select one of these six scenarios by June. Two of them are within the limits set by the IPCC's scientific data," said Martin Bursík.
"One very positive message was the Japanese government's reaction to the European Union's proposal that a linked carbon market come into being in all OECD countries by as early as 2015 and a global market by 2020," said Martin Bursík, adding that this is highly significant chiefly for preserving the competitive strength of enterprises from countries where there is already a functioning carbon market and enterprises must purchase permits at auctions. "Japan is very favourably inclined towards this proposal and has already introduced a similar pilot system itself. We also heard a similarly positive reaction in the USA," said President of the EU Environment Council Martin Bursík.
In the USA, emissions trading (the so-called cap-and-trade system) is already functional in several states and the Obama administration is working hard on legislation that will establish it at the federal level. "Senator John Kerry and Congressman Henry Waxman, with whom we also negotiated, are playing an important part in this process. Congressman Waxman will submit the proposal to the House of Representatives in April, and I firmly believe that both the House and the Senate of the American Congress will pass it by the Copenhagen summit," added Martin Bursík.
The role of developing countries will also be fundamental. From these countries, Europe expects greenhouse emissions reductions of between 15% and 30% by 2020 compared with scenarios lacking any kind of economy measures (business as usual). "It is evident that key developing countries such as China and India are waiting to see what the USA will do. It is thus extremely important that the USA not only shoulder a very good long-term obligation to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050, but that it also have an objective for 2020 that is more ambitious than the currently declared emission reduction at the level for 1990, which would mean a 14% reduction as opposed to now," Minister Bursík stated.
Contact:
- Jakub Kašpar, Spokesman of the Ministry of the Environment
- Tel.: +420 267 122 040, GSM: +420 724 175 927, E-mail: jakub.kaspar@mzp.cz
Last update: 16.8.2011 15:41
