EU lawmakers call for faster climate change curbs

EU lawmakers call for faster climate change curbs

Reuters

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Global temperature rises should be kept well below the European Union's target of 2 degrees Celsius to avoid costly damage to people and their lifestyles, the European parliament said on Wednesday.

Its members voted 566-61 in favor of a report which also said EU consumers must be given better information about the "carbon footprint" of goods they buy, including products imported into the 27-nation bloc.

The report is not part of a law but provides a stance for the parliament which has powers of co-decision on EU environment matters.

EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas criticized the United States for not helping control climate change and praised China for its efforts so far.

"We're calling on the United States of America to stop being an obstacle to progress in this area, and to actually be part of the process," he told parliamentarians.

"Discussions under way with the United States have started to move in the right direction... however we are still expecting them to improve their stance."

Washington argues that improved technology will do more to slow climate change than limits on industry.

The EU says any warming of the climate by more than 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels would bring more damaging heat waves, storms, flooding and water shortages.

The bloc has adopted ambitious targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by a fifth by 2020 from 1990 levels, and Dimas said it was making good progress with CO2 down 8 percent since 1990.

But the parliament's report seeks to go further.

"All efforts to curb emissions should in fact aim at staying well below the 2 degrees target, as such a level of warming would already heavily impact on our society and individual lifestyles," said the report, drawn up by German conservative member of parliament Karl-Heinz Florenz.

However, a U.N. panel of scientists says that target will be hard to achieve and that its best guess for temperature rises this century is between 1.8 and 4 degrees Celsius.

CLIMATE SCEPTIC

British conservative Roger Helmer argued that severe weather events had not become any more frequent. "Climate hysteria is increasingly remote from reality," he said. "We need to rethink our policies before they do any more damage."

Irish conservative Avril Doyle, who is guiding emissions trading legislation through the parliament, hit back:

"For legislators to ignore the peer-reviewed opinion of the overwhelming majority of scientists in the field of climate change throughout the world would be a combustible mixture of arrogance, irresponsibility and complete dereliction of duty."

The report called for the rapid development of eco-labeling to allow shoppers to trim their carbon footprints, and it touched on the divisive issue of so-called food miles.

Environmentalists recommend that people eat as much locally produced food as possible, ending carbon-intensive air-freighting of fruit and vegetables around the world.

But many developing countries, especially in Africa, say farmers are dependent on the lucrative trade which they contend is balanced out by less carbon-intensive farming methods.

(Writing by Pete Harrison, additional reporting by Paul Taylor, edited by Richard Meares)

© Thomson Reuters 2008.

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Big investors seek stricter climate laws

Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Investors managing more than $2.3 trillion urged the government on Tuesday to enact strict laws to cut greenhouse gas emissions, saying lax regulation could hurt the competitiveness of U.S. companies.

The group of some 50 investors, including the world's biggest listed hedge fund firm, Man Group Plc and influential venture capitalist John Doerr, want U.S. lawmakers to pass laws to reduce climate-warming emissions by at least 60 to 90 percent by 2050.

Legislation that promotes new and existing clean technologies on the scale needed to dramatically cut down pollution is needed, they said.

The same group of investors are also pushing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to force publicly-traded companies to disclose climate-related risks along with other factors that affect their business.

"Establishing a strong national climate policy for emissions reductions will help investors manage the enormous risks and opportunities posed by global warming," Anne Stausboll, Calpers' interim chief investment officer, said in a statement.

Calpers is the largest U.S. pension fund with about $250 billion in assets under management.

Investors said the lack of strong federal laws may hurt U.S. competitiveness because it is preventing companies from making large-scale capital investments in clean energy such as solar and wind power and other low-carbon technologies and practices.

Randall Edwards, Oregon's treasurer, said Europe and individual U.S. states are tackling climate change and it was time for federal lawmakers to step up to the task.

"It's a huge job opportunity," said Edwards, who managed about $80 billion in assets as of March 31. "It will be a shifting economy. No economy is static."

The European Union is aiming to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and increase the share of wind, solar, hydro, wave power and biofuels in their energy mix by the same date.

The investors' letter, addressed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, comes ahead of Senate debate on legislation aimed at limiting the carbon emissions that spur climate change.

The bill, America's Climate Security Act of 2007, also includes a provision that would require the SEC to craft a rule requiring companies to disclose material risks relating to climate change.

Treasurers and controllers for California, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, as well as the California State Teachers' Retirement System are among those that signed the letter.

(Editing by Andre Grenon)

© Thomson Reuters 2008.

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