The EU on Friday submitted its formal promise on how much it plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions to the UN ahead of climate change talks starting in November and called on the US and China to follow its lead.
The EU is the first major economy to agree to its position before the talks in Paris this year aimed at establishing a new worldwide deal on global warming.
“We expect China, the United States and the other G20 countries in particular to follow the European Union and submit their contributions by the end of March,” EU Commissioner for Energy and Climate Action Miguel Arias Canete told reporters after a meeting of EU environment ministers in Brussels.
French Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy Segolene Royal said Europe was taking up its responsibilities as host of this year’s Paris climate conference, which begins on Nov. 30.
“A very important step was taken today,” she said. “This is a decisive, historic stage.”
On Thursday, Royal had said agreement had to be reached by March 20 at the latest.
The EU’s official contribution would be a target of an at least 40 percent cut in emissions by 2030, compared to levels emitted in 1990.
The target was set at a summit in October last year, but ministers still had to agree on the details of the formal submission to the UN.
The target has to be achieved domestically rather than through offsets that allow member states to buy into carbon-cutting schemes outside Europe.
EU diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, say the 40 percent target would have to be shared among member states and debate over how to achieve that is only likely to begin after the Paris talks.
One option is to share the effort based on a member state’s GDP per capita.
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