Europe Moves to Implement Climate Change Protocol

STRASBOURG, France, October 22, 2003 (ENS) - One of the last legislative pillars needed for the European Union to implement the Kyoto climate change protocol was put in place Tuesday as the European Parliament backed a first reading compromise with the Council of Ministers on monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions.

The parliament adopted a draft law creating a revised greenhouse gas monitoring system for the EU. Based on a European Commission proposal from February, the text was hammered out before the vote with the council, which is expected to rubber stamp the deal at its next meeting October 27.

The monitoring directive updates a 1993 law to introduce wider and more detailed reporting of emissions. It includes all the protocol's emission tracking obligations and creates standardized inventories to account for the various emission reduction credits expected to be generated under its flexible mechanisms. The protocol's three flexible mechanisms allow industrialized countries governed by the protocol to gain emissions reductions credits for projects created in developing countries.

British Energy's Eggborough coal fired power station in North Yorkshire emits the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. (Photo courtesy FreeFoto)

On Tuesday, the Commission welcomed the decision to agree as a step forward. "The agreement on this Decision shows the EU's determination to implement all the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom declared.

"It means that the EU and its member states will improve their monitoring of both greenhouse gas emissions and progress towards their Kyoto targets, which will provide us with a comprehensive set of data of EU greenhouse gas emissions and of our climate change policies," she said.

The draft law provides for more accurate guidelines on emission forecasts, and it requires EU member states to match their greenhouse gas emissions with emission rights granted under the Kyoto Protocol on an annual basis.

It also provides for a review in 2006 of the extent to which the EU and its member states are meeting all their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, in the light of which the Commission may make proposals to ensure these commitments are met.

"When the EU ratified the Kyoto Protocol, we knew that solid action had to follow. This decision represents such solid action," said Wallstrom.

The Kyoto Protocol has not yet come into force, but the European Union has ratified it and is proceeding as if the protocol was legally binding. The rules for entry into force of the protocol require 55 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to ratify the protocol, including industrialized countries accounting for 55 percent of that group’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 1990.

Countries representing 43.7 percent of CO2 emissions have ratified the protocol, and the eyes of the world are now on Russia whose 17 percent of CO2 emissions would bring it into effect.

{Published in cooperation with ENDS Environment Daily, Europe's choice for environmental news. Environmental Data Services Ltd, London. Email: envdaily@ends.co.uk}