Carmen Bunzl - Universidad Pontificia Comillas

Chapter 2. Options for future climate change architectures 106
3.2.4 Major public climate policies and implementation of commitments
This section provides a brief overview of the climate policies implemented in
the EU, US, Japan, Russia, China, India and Brazil. Basis of the evaluation is the
historical data – including greenhouse gas emissions -, national
communications to the UNFCCC and other reports on the discussion (Höhne et.
al, 2007).
First, a general overview of the status of climate policies in a given country is
provided. Then some national policies are briefly introduced and assessed.
3.2.4.1 European Union
Emissions in the EU 15 decreased by 2% between 1990 and 2005, which is 6%
from the Kyoto Target of –8% below 1990 emissions. Emissions in the EU 27
have decreased by 11% while their accumulated target is –8% (European
Environment Agency 2007).
The European Union has been very proactive in promoting climate change
mitigation, it is a front runner in climate negotiations. The EU has an ambitious
target to reduce emissions by 20% by 2020 and is even willing to reduce them
by 30% if other industrialized nations take on a comparable effort. It has also set
targets for renewable energy ad energy efficiency for 2020.
One of the most relevant EU policies on climate change is the Emission
Trading Directive (Directive 2003/87/EC). The EU emission trading scheme
(ETS) (see Section 1.3.2.1) is established where emission certificate can be traded
among the participating installations – currently over 11,500 installations
covering 45% of the overall CO2 emissions in Europe. The first phase, from 2005
– 2007, was a learning one, followed by the second phase in 2008 – 2012. Some
of the lessons learned and problems faced are reviewed in a Communication by
the European Commission (COM(2006)676 final): overestimation of baseline
emissions led to unsatisfying environmental outcome, in some sectors the value
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería ICAI Carmen Bunzl Boulet Junio 2008