Commissioner Hedegaard: "In Cancún we want to see a balanced set of decisions"

During the Environment Council of 14 October 2010, Connie Hedegaard, Commissioner for Climate Action, and Joke Schauvliege, Flemish Minister for the Environment, issued the following statement: "Today's discussion at the Environment Council showed that there is a strong will that the European Union will continue its leadership in the fight against climate change and will speak with one voice in Cancún.  In Cancún we want to see a balanced set of decisions".

In particular we want to see concrete decisions on Forestry, Adaptation, Measurement, Reporting, Verification (MRV) and on Technological Development. We can assure the world that the EU will deliver on the fast start funding. The Parties must build on the Copenhagen Accord.

The EU has no problem with the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol; we have built our EU legislation on Kyoto Protocol principles and therefore we can accept a second commitment period, but we would not do it without conditions. All major economies will have to commit themselves, and areas where the present Kyoto Protocol lacks environmental integrity need to be addressed".

Contact:

• Maria KOKKONEN - Tel. +32-2-2954203 - maria [dot] kokkonenec [dot] europa [dot] eu (Maria[dot]kokkonen[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
• Patrick VERSTUYFT - Tel. +32-2-5526369 - patrick [dot] verstuyftvlaanderen [dot] be (patrick[dot]verstuyft[at]vlaanderen[dot]be)