EU strikes compromise to set new climate target

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/24/eu-summit-climatechange-idUSL6N0SI6IK20141024

[font face=Serif][font size=5]UPDATE 2-EU strikes compromise to set new climate target[/font]

Thu Oct 23, 2014 9:52pm EDT

[font size=3]* Overall goal of 40-percent cut in emissions by 2030

* EU says sets example for rest of the world to follow

* Environmentalists complain compromise fails to do enough (Adds link to text, industry views, energy security)

By Barbara Lewis and Alastair Macdonald

BRUSSELS, Oct 24 (Reuters) - European Union leaders struck a deal on a new target to cut carbon emissions out to 2030, calling it a new global standard but leaving critics warning that compromises had undermined the fight against climate change.

...

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 percent from levels in the benchmark year of 1990. An existing goal of a 20-percent cut by 2020 has already been nearly met.

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[OKIsItJustMe]

1. EU leaders agree to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/24/eu-leaders-agree-to-cut-greenhouse-gas-emissions-by-40-by-2030

[font face=Serif][font size=5]EU leaders agree to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030[/font]
[font size=4]Climate commissioner hails ‘strong signal’ ahead of global Paris summit but key aspects of deal left vague or voluntary[/font]

Arthur Neslen in Brussels
theguardian.com, Thursday 23 October 2014 21.29 EDT

[font size=3] European leaders have struck a broad climate change pact obliging the EU as a whole to cut greenhouse gases by at least 40% by 2030.

But key aspects of the deal that will form a bargaining position for global climate talks in Paris next year were left vague or voluntary, raising questions as to how the aims would be realised.

As well as the greenhouse gas, two 27% targets were agreed – for renewable energy market share and increase in energy efficiency improvement. The former would be binding only on the EU as a whole. The latter would be optional, although it could be raised to 30% by a review in 2020.

“It was not easy, not at all, but we managed to reach a fair decision that sets the EU on an ambitious but cost-effective climate path,” Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council told a press conference in Brussels.

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[quadrature]

4. Kyoto Treaty .. --> almost 100% cheats

(Kyoto 'treaty',or was it a
'protocol' to the UNFCCC?)

every country on
schedule 1 or Annex 1, that had
a numerical target cheated,
except the United States**.
funny how that works.

something similar will happen here.

** US never ratified

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Did they cave on Obama's demand to water it down

so they could use filthy Keystone XL tar?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/20/trade-representative-tar-sands_n_4482133.html

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. EU's New Deal on 40 Percent Carbon Cut Doesn't Please Everyone

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/eus-new-deal-40-percent-carbon-cut-doesnt-please-everyone-n232781

[font face=Serif][font size=5]EU's New Deal on 40 Percent Carbon Cut Doesn't Please Everyone[/font]

[font size=3]European Union leaders struck a deal on a new target to cut carbon emissions by 2030 to at least 40 percent below 1990 levels, calling it a new global standard, but critics warned that compromises had undermined the fight against climate change. Poland had fought to spare its coal industry and other states tweaked the guideline text on global warming to protect varied economic interests, including nuclear plants, cross-border power lines and farmers whose livestock belch out polluting methane. The 28-nation bloc has already nearly met an existing goal of a 20-percent cut by 2020, in part because communist-era industry in the east collapsed.

EU leaders called the 40-percent target an ambitious signal to the United States and China to follow suit at a U.N. climate summit in France in December 2015. But environmentalists have complained that the EU's own experts say it must make an at least 80-percent cut by 2050 to limit the rise in global average temperatures to two degrees Celsius. And 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.[/font][/font]