An international climate agreement in Copenhagen

The European Green Party calls on the European Union and all negotiating parties at the UNFCCC to ensure an agreement in Copenhagen that:

• Is consistent with an emissions trajectory that gives a high probability of keeping warming well below the dangerous level of 2 ̊C. To this end, global emissions need to peak by 2015 followed by a sharp decline thereafter, leading to global emissions reductions of 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

• Includes binding targets for industrialised countries that collectively add up to emissions reductions from Annex I at the high end of the IPCC 4th Assessment Report (4AR) range of 25-40% by 2020 from 1990 levels to be delivered domestically and not through the purchase of offsets. Mitigation efforts in developing countries must be supported by mechanisms that are additional to the domestic reduction obligations in developed countries.

• This entails EU emissions reductions of 40% by 2020 compared to 1990 levels to be delivered domestically and not through the purchase of offsets.

• Comprises effective, additional financing for climate change mitigation in developing countries, including for avoided deforestation and degradation, and adaptation amounting to at least €120 bn by 2020. Financing from industrialised countries for mitigation in developing countries must be supplemental to domestic reduction targets and not offsetting them. The international climate policy framework must ensure independent, predictable financing for assisting low-income vulnerable countries in adapting to inevitable climate change.

• This requires new additional EU financing for developing country mitigation and adaptation of €35 bn per annum by 2020. The availability of this financing should not be made dependent on the creation of an international carbon market. The EU should guarantee that the full amount of money will annually be available from 2020 onwards.

• Does not promote any solutions or technologies that would lead to additional risks to the environment or people. Nuclear energy, new coal power plants, tradable forest credits, and agrofuels that lead to deforestation or displacement of agriculture must be excluded from international climate policy financing.

• Sets out a path for achieving an energy efficient, fully renewables-based economy by 2050 at the latest, including an immediate moratorium on coal-based technologies in industrialised countries and a global phase-out of nuclear technologies."

The agreement to be reached in Copenhagen should exist of flexible instruments that can easily be adjusted to new scientific findings, such as the fifth assessment report of the IPCC, which is planned to be presented in 2014.