EU:EU environment ministers have reached a landmark political agreement to cut CO2 emissions in Europe by 20 per cent by 2020 to tackle climate change.
However, tough negotiations lie ahead over the specific burden that each state will shoulder to meet the unilateral EU-wide target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
At a meeting in Brussels yesterday, all 27 EU member states backed the European Commission proposal on CO2 cuts despite reservations in some national capitals.
Poland, Hungary and Finland were among a group of EU states that raised concerns over the potential impact the emissions cuts would have on domestic industry.
"The climate in Finland is cold, distances are long and the share of energy-intensive industries is relatively high," Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen said in a statement. He said his country did not want its share of emissions cuts to be unreasonable.
Warsaw also pressed for concessions, using Ireland as an example of a country that benefited hugely from EU funds but had not reduced its CO2 emissions.
Poland wants the base year on which its CO2 cuts are calculated to be changed from the current base year of 1990 - a standard agreed under the Kyoto protocol - to 1988. It argues that the major industrial reconstruction that took place between 1988-1990 in Poland during its transition from communism should be taken more fully into account.
EU ministers said the base year should remain at 1990. However, they signalled that states' past performance on emissions cuts would be taken into account in the allocations.
Under the Kyoto protocol the EU-15 signed up to reduce CO2 emissions by an average of 8 per cent between 2008 and 2012 compared to 1990 emissions levels. At the time each EU state was given individual targets based on criteria such as economic growth and the structure of its industry. For example, Ireland can increase emissions by 13 per cent while the UK must cut emissions by 12.5 per cent under Kyoto.
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche said if similar criteria were used for burden-sharing under the new political agreement, Ireland could expect to face a 0 per cent cut in CO2 emissions by 2020. He said any environment minister needed to be ambitious but also realistic in the negotiations to avoid a "ruinous" cut in emissions levels.
Even a national allocation mandating a 0 per cent cut in emissions by 2020 that is based on 1990 emissions levels would be extremely challenging for the Republic. It is estimated that CO2 emissions are now 25.4 per cent above 1990 levels in Ireland.
Tough negotiations on burden-sharing between EU states are expected to begin later this year when the commission announces a formula to decide allocations.
This will be based on a host of factors such as economic growth rates, emissions cuts already achieved and the structure of a state's industrial base. It is also possible that the commission will introduce cuts targeting specific industrial sectors rather than member states, according to commission officials.
Environment commissioner Stavros Dimas welcomed the political support for the commission proposal, saying ministers had accepted the "need for the European Union to continue its leadership in fighting climate change".
However, some environmental organisations and a few member states said the decision for a 20 per cent unilateral cut in CO2 emissions in the EU by 2020 did not go far enough.
Sweden's minister for the environment, Andreas Carlgren, said the decision not to back a more ambitious unilateral reduction of 30 per cent sent an unclear message to the rest of the world in the lead-up to crucial talks on a global deal. There are hopes the US, India and China may be drawn into a new global deal to replace Kyoto. World leaders are expected to discuss this at a G8 summit planned for June.