04/09/2009 Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
“If the continuity of the Kyoto Protocol is to be ensured, an ambitious, binding new agreement will have to be concluded at the UN Climate Change conference this December in Copenhagen,” according to John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC) in a report adopted today by the PACE Committee on the Environment. Developed countries must accept their historical responsibility for CO2 emissions since the dawn of the industrial age, the Rapporteur believes, and initiate deep and early cuts in their emissions according to the “polluter pays” principle.
In the committee’s view, this new agreement should uphold, over the long-term, social justice and equity in energy and resource consumption, with the goal of setting per capita greenhouse gas emissions at the same level for all countries by 2050 (the equivalent of 2 tonnes of CO2 per person per year).
The Prescott report, to be debated by the Assembly in its plenary session on 29 September, takes stock of the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and reviews developments in the positions of key Parties to the negotiations in Copenhagen, focusing on the European Union, the United States, China and Australia.