Ambassador John Bruton Calls for Internationally Binding Targets to Fight Climate Change.

WASHINGTON -- Ambassador John Bruton, Head of Delegation of the European Commission to the United States, said today that the world needs binding commitments to effectively fight climate change and that the European Union's cap and trade system offers the best solution. The full text of his statement follows:

There are important international meetings taking place on climate change this week. At the heart of these is the question of whether:

1. the problem can best be tackled by each nation setting loose, non-binding targets, without an international enforcement mechanism. This is the preference of the US Administration, or

2. as the European Union would prefer, we have a mandatory global cap and trade system, which would use market mechanisms under which countries which emitted above target amounts of greenhouse gases would have to pay hard cash for the privilege of doing so. The EU believes this will incentivise the early adoption of carbon saving technologies.

I prefer the EU's proposal because of its political realism. I come from a family background in the cattle trade. Although there was always a measure of trust in the trade, I often heard the saying "an oral promise is not worth the paper it is written on". A non-binding international understanding is just like an oral promise.

President Barroso made the point at the UN yesterday. He said we have "to set binding reduction commitments to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions... Our best efforts, our good intentions are necessary, but not sufficient".

The plain fact of the matter is that containing climate change will be a major challenge. It will certainly involve a lot of change, and change is usually difficult for someone.

The question climate change negotiations face will be then: Will the cost be shared out fairly between different countries?

A cap and trade system is a market mechanism which works of its own accord without political interference. As such, it is more likely to be perceived as fair in the way it works in practice, as compared with anything based on voluntary targets and political understandings, which will be suspected of favouring the more powerful players. That is why I hope the United States will urgently come around to the European Union's view on the matter.