EU ENVIRONMENT commissioner Stavros Dimas has dismissed claims that the Copenhagen climate change summit is doomed to failure due to delays in the enactment of environmental legislation in the US.
European leaders remain far apart on how the bill for climate change measures should be divided up among EU states and the US remains vague on emissions cuts and fiscal contributions to poor countries.
Although the EU expects that the US and other developed countries will not show their hands on emissions cuts and development aid until the end of the talks, Mr Dimas remains optimistic.
“There is too much pessimism around. I expect that we are going to have a significant agreement in Copenhagen,” he told reporters in Brussels.
Mr Dimas said there was still an expectation that President Obama would promote a far-reaching deal and he said the US government could move regardless of the internal political dynamics.
“It is crucial that our partners in the industrialised world and the big emerging countries live up to their responsibilities.”
He was speaking as European Commission president José Manuel Barroso declared he would attend the Copenhagen summit and urged other world leaders to do the same.
Mr Dimas published a new report which found that the 15 pre-enlargement EU members were on track to deliver on their targets under the Kyoto pact.
“Ireland will achieve its individual target with additional measures,” Mr Dimas said. “Again, the existing measures are not enough.”
He said the adoption of new measures was a matter for the Government, but added that they included a carbon tax and subsidies for the reduction of harmful emissions.
Austria was the only one of the EU-15 states that would not achieve its Kyoto targets, he said. The highest absolute reductions in greenhouse gas emissions were achieved by Germany and Britain.
