Financiarul

The European Union is taking upon itself the role of a global leader on climate changes, with the main goals being to limit global warming to below 2 degrees C and to curb the greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc said after the Summer European Council on Friday.

The EU also plans a 20 percent increase in the share of renewable energy in the total energy consumption as well as a 20 percent rise in energy efficiency, he added.

‘On the climate changes, the decision was made that the EU be ready at the United Nations Summit due in Copenhagen in December in order to enforce the goals set.

Such goals aim to limit global warming to below 2 degrees C and to curb the greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and also a 20 percent increase in the share of renewable energy in the total energy consumption as well as a 20 percent rise in energy efficiency’, Boc said.

The prime minister stressed the EU was taking upon itself the role of a global leader on climate changes, but he pointed out such process should involve other countries from across the globe too, with the Council decision citing the United States, China, Russia, Korea and Canada that should be partners in the fight against climate changes.

‘The important decision is related to the manner in which such spending relating the climate changes will be financed.

The document text targets two criteria: the payment capacity of the countries and the responsibility for the emissions and it underscores that all the countries – except for the less developed ones – should be involved in this mechanism, so that the climate changes may indeed be a successful process /…/, given that the carbon dioxide emissions grew 70 percent from 1970 till 2004.

It is a sad figure, but it forces the EU to also be concerned at such decisions’, Prime Minister Boc said.