EU presses for accountability, opening rift at UN climate talks

(planet-ark, 10 Dec 2014) European Union insistence on a right to challenge nations about their plans for fighting climate change, in the run-up to a United Nations summit in 2015, opened a rift at U.N. climate talks in Lima on Monday.

Washington said a review of national pledges for curbing rising greenhouse gas emissions before the U.N. summit in Paris next December was "not fundamental" and Beijing signaled hostility to the idea of letting other nations challenge its policies.

The dispute has big implications for the deal in Paris, which could either be a patchwork of purely national offers to fight climate change beyond 2020, or one where countries and outside observers including green groups are able to challenge and influence the scope of national pledges.

"There should be a process of assessment. That's absolutely imperative," Miguel Arias Canete, European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, told a news conference.

Under a U.N. timetable, about 190 governments have an informal deadline to submit national plans for limiting rising greenhouse gas emissions before March 31, 2015, to give time for a review before the Paris summit.

External link

planet-ark, 10 Dec 2014: EU presses for accountability, opening rift at UN climate talks