Building a post-2012 global climate regime: the EU's contribution
 9 March 2010. European Commission Communication on international climate policy post-Copenhagen: Acting now to reinvigorate global action on climate change.
International negotiations are under way to draw up a United Nations agreement to govern global action on climate change after 2012, when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires. The European Union has taken a leading role in these negotiations and wants them to result as soon as possible in a comprehensive, ambitious, fair and science-based global agreement that is legally binding.
The December 2009 Copenhagen Accord represents a step towards such an agreement. The EU sees the Accord as a basis for further progress and is working to make it operational at the earliest opportunity.
Like the Copenhagen Accord, the post-2012 agreement should aim to keep global warming below 2°C above the pre-industrial temperature, equivalent to below 1.2°C above today's level (see brochure). It should cover all elements of the 2007 Bali Action Plan, which sets the agenda and scope of the international negotiations.
Scientific evidence shows that for the world to have a 50% chance of keeping within the 2°C ceiling, global emissions of greenhouse gases need to peak by 2020 at the latest, be cut by at least 50% of their 1990 levels by 2050, and continue to decline thereafter.
These reductions can be achieved only through a worldwide effort involving developed and developing countries alike. However, the emission targets by developed countries and the emission actions by developing countries pledged under the Copenhagen Accord so far appear insufficient to keep warming below 2°C.
Industrialised nations must take the lead by making deep emission cuts of 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and of 80-95% by 2050. In this context the EU has made a unilateral commitment to cut its emissions in 2020 to at least 20% below 1990 levels, and is offering to scale up this reduction to 30% provided other major emitters in the developed and developing worlds take on their fair share of the mitigation effort under a global agreement.
Action by developing nations (except the least developed countries) is also needed to limit the rapid growth in their emissions. Overall, developing country pledges need to amount to a substantial deviation - in the order of 15-30% - below the currently predicted growth rate in their collective emissions by 2020.
The EU fully recognises that developing countries need financial assistance from industrialised nations and international institutions to help them mitigate emissions and adapt to climate change. The Copenhagen Accord foresees 'fast start' financing for the 2010-12 period approaching a total of US$ 30 billion (€7.2 billion of which will come from the EU alone) and medium-term financing of US$ 100 billion a year by 2020.
The EU's position on post-2012 global action is set out in two sets of 'conclusions' representing the views of the Council of EU Environment Ministers and of the European Council (which brings together the EU Heads of State and Government).
The EU position has been shaped by a series of policy papers ("Communications") from the European Commission. These papers have also served to stimulate international debate. The Communications are presented here.
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