The UN Conference of the Parties ended on Saturday 11 December in Cancún with an agreement to extend the commitment period under the Kyoto protocol beyond 2012. This year’s conference gathered Environmental Ministers from almost 200 countries to discuss and decide actions to be taken against Climate Change on a global level.

Commenting on the outcomes of the Conference, the President of the Party of European Socialists, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said:

“The Cancun Convention has delivered mitigated results: we have seen some positive advances on both the fight against deforestation and the financing of developing countries. However, conservative governments have succeeded in not matching these objectives with practical, binding agreements. Also, the critical issue of the obligation for polluters to share the environmental costs they cause has been swept under the carpet, dismissing calls for an international carbon trade market and a tax to petrol shipping. The European position to not offer a 30% emissions reduction goal by 2020 was a further mistake that has prevented significant advancements on that issue”.

The PES will continue to be in the vanguard of the fight against climate change by advocating for a 40% reduction of the final energy demand and incrdeasing energy generation from renewable sources to at least 95% by 2050.

Background information

• The PES has recently adopted a policy paper outlining entitled “Making green growth become a reality” a progressive strategy to achieve fair and green growth.

• An extension of the commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol does not require the USA or China, by far the biggest emitters of CO2, to adopt any binding emission mitigation targets. China will continue to be considered a developing country for which exceptions apply and the USA has never ratified the agreement.

For further details, please contact:
Brian Synnott – Mobile: +32 474 98 96 75 – brian.synnott@pes.org