“The Obama Administration is very ambitious but the Americans have come quite late” says the head of Parliament's Environment Committee Jo Leinen. The German Socialist MEP is just back from talks with the US Congress ahead of the UN's Copenhagen climate summit in December where he will lead Parliament's delegation. In this interview Leinen says that a lack of targets for CO2 cuts and who is going to finance climate adaption and mitigation are two stumbling blocks.
You are just back from Washington where you met members of the US Congress - what signals did you get? Do you think the US will undertake emission reduction commitments and do you think a transatlantic carbon market will be created?
The Obama Administration is very ambitious in climate protection but the Americans have come quite late. So they are behind the European Union and I hear that for Copenhagen the Congress will not have passed the legislation on climate protection.
So there are many open questions about what will be their commitment in the short term for Copenhagen. In the medium and long term I am sure that we have a change of mindset in US politics and the US technology industry. If the Americans engage in a topic, they want to be number one and they are really competing with Europe in technology.
There are many issues on the table for Copenhagen: targets, climate financing and technology transfer to name three. Which issues do you think have the power to deadlock negotiations?
There are two blocking issues. One is the concrete commitment of industrialised countries on reduction targets for CO2. I think the developing world and the emerging countries want to see concrete binding commitments by the industrialised world who has already burdened the atmosphere for 200 years with climate gases.
The second blocking issue is financing climate adaptation and mitigation in developing countries. So, Europe, USA and Japan have to put on the table concrete proposals on how much money they are ready to give for the developing world for being in the same consensus on the same agreement.
Last week the EU leaders produced a “conditional offer” running short of ambitious objectives laid down by EP Environment Committee. Will the EU still have a strong negotiating position?
The EU is so far the only actor in the world proposing concrete targets on CO2 reduction and a financial framework to help the developing countries. What is coming out of the European Council is not enough, it is too weak and I think it is too timid. So there must be more engagement till Copenhagen to commit a real act of solidarity between the rich world and the poor world.