EU about to make climate change blunder: Greenpeace


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will sabotage its aim of getting developed nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions sharply if it sets a lower target for itself than it seeks for the rest of the world, Greenpeace said on Tuesday.
The European Commission, in a new set of energy and environmental policy measures, is expected to propose on Wednesday that developed nations cut emissions of gases, blamed for global warming, by 30 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
At the same time, the Commission will propose the 27-nation EU set a target of reducing its own greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent in the period, with the possibility of increasing that goal if the international community agrees to a broader cut.
Environmental group Greenpeace said an EU goal of a 20 percent cut would undermine the chance of a larger target on the world stage.
"We think that this is a political and scientific blunder," said Mahi Sideridou, climate policy director at Greenpeace in Brussels, adding the 20 percent target resulted from political bargaining rather than climate change science.
"They are fiddling while the planet is burning," she said.
The EU, which played a key role in bringing the Kyoto Protocol into force, has struggled to reconcile its role as a leader in the fight against climate change with its effort to boost the competitiveness of its own members.