European Parliament recognizes the need to support developing countries in their fight against climate change

Oxfam welcomed today’s vote by the European Parliament’s Environment Committee on the ETS Directive to use 50% of the auctioning revenues generated from the emission permits for developing countries to tackle climate change via an international fund.

The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) covers almost half of EU emissions, the largest polluting sectors ranging from power generation to heavy industries.

Douwe Buzeman, Oxfam’s Climate Change and EU Development Policy Adviser in Brussels, said: “There is a deep injustice in the impacts of climate change. Rich countries have caused the problem with many decades of greenhouse-gas emissions, but poor countries will be worst affected, facing greater droughts, floods, hunger, and disease”.

Furthermore, the Environment Committee voted in the Effort Sharing proposal, part of the EU Climate Package, to start helping developing countries to adapt to the negative consequences of climate change. The Environment Committee voted for at least 10 billion euros of annual financial assistance by 2020. Oxfam welcomes the fact that this money for developing countries will be additional to existing development money and be provided in grants.

Oxfam would have liked MEPs to have gone further by immediately committing to reduce its domestic emissions by at least 30% by 2020, but welcomes the automatic trigger to 30 % when an international climate change deal is agreed.

The result of the committee vote is just a first step, it forms the basis for further negotiations with the Council in view of an agreement to be officially approved by the Council and Parliament in December. This will coincide with the important UNFCCC summit that will take place in Poznan.

Oxfam calls upon the European member states to follow the European Parliament in showing leadership in helping the developing world to adapt to climate change.