EU: the missing leader

The two-week UN Climate Change Conference opens in Bali on Monday, but the European Union will not be playing the leadership role many had hoped and some had feared.

European leaders claimed earlier this year they would now have "more credibility" to play the "pioneering role in international climate protection". For example, they committed to:

• a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 20% by 2020; and

• a binding rise in the EU's share of renewables to 20% by 2020.

However, they neglected to discuss how they would actually achieve these targets, instead telling the Commission to draft a plan in time for this week's conference.  But the EU had to postpone the announcement. Thus the attempt to make the EU the stalking horse of the battle against climate change has turned into an embarrassing farce, eroding its negotiating power to get others on board. 

The problem is that EU members cannot agree on how to distribute the targets between them. New member states argue that their targets should be more lenient as their economies are still developing. Countries with large energy sectors are also keen to negotiate some flexibility, as they fear the departure of their industrial base to less expensive and less environmentally stringent regions. 

So instead of setting an example for the rest of the world, the EU has only managed to highlight all the possible excuses why a pro-active climate change approach might actually be harmful. This does not give much hope for the negotiations in Bali.