Climate initiatives or climate crisis – political choice

Statement by the Nordic Council Environment and Natural Resources Committee, 8/4 2014

The UN climate panel's most recent report concludes that failure to reverse current trends will lead to the destruction of ecosystems, more hunger and more floods. Science has proposed many smart solutions that will make the world a bit better. It is a question of political choice!

At the Copenhagen Summit in 2009, world leaders agreed to restrict global warming to 2° in order to avoid dangerous climate change. Five years will soon have passed, and the gap between words and action remains wide. The concentration of climate gases in the atmosphere is increasing by 1–2% p.a.. If global emissions of greenhouse gases continue at the current level, warming will probably reach 4° this century. This may take the climate system to a tipping point and result in dangerous and irreversible climate change. Reducing emissions over the next few decades would significantly reduce of the risk of this happening.

The climate challenge is one faced by all countries and requires a global solution. The Nordic Region accounts for a fraction of global emissions. The EU accounts for only 11% of global emissions of greenhouse gases – and that number is falling.  The single most important objective for the Nordic countries’ climate policies should be to get the rest of the world to sign up to a global agreement capable of stopping dangerous changes to the Earth's climate. One necessary step in this direction is an EU agreement on a progressive climate and energy policy. The EU should set targets for emissions of greenhouse gases, shares of renewable sources and energy efficiency. Taken together, these would represent a credible step in the direction of reducing emissions of climate gases by 80–95% from 1990 to 2050.

To date, the EU has played a leading role in global climate negotiations.  It is therefore a matter of some concern that European leaders failed to agree at their meeting in March on a joint climate policy that would pave the way for European input into a global agreement in 2015. A progressive European climate and energy policy with greater use of renewable energy and an integrated EU gas and electricity market would also reduce the region’s dependency on energy imported from Russia. 

The EU heads of state will meet again in June. The new UN report is a reminder that the EU must be ready to lead the world out of the growing climate crisis, a crisis that is expected to cause growing hunger and need for future generations. The Committee therefore calls on the Nordic governments to work towards an ambitious EU climate policy when the heads of state meet in June 2014.

The Nordic Council is holding its Theme Session in Akureyri, Iceland, today. The theme session starts with a topical about the situation in Ukraine, followed by the planned debate on sustainable extraction of natural resources. The Session starts at 13:00 (Icleandic time) and is being broadcast live on norden.org/temasession2014.