NEW YORK — The European Union will aim to slash greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent by 2030, European Commission President Josè Manuel Barroso said Tuesday at the United Nations climate summit.
The move came as a bit of a surprise. Observers had dropped expectations that the EU would tender a new commitment at the summit, as concerns about energy security and economic growth have taken center stage for the EU’s 28 member countries.
“Tackling climate change is not the sole responsibility of governments. It will only succeed in a true coalition of all stakeholders, business leaders, financial institutions and civil society,” Barroso said. “It is essential that we already raise the ambition of pre-2020 emission cuts.”
Nations aren’t required to offer their post-2020 greenhouse gas cutting targets until the first quarter of next year. President Obama, for example, won’t be laying out a new mark for the United States, White House officials have said.
The summit Tuesday is not a part of the formal process for next year’s Paris climate talks. It’s being viewed as a potential momentum builder for those negotiations, where nations will seek to secure enough carbon cutting commitments by 2020 to avoid a 2 degrees Celsius temperature rise by 2100.
The EU went beyond setting new greenhouse gas emissions goals.
Barroso said the EU will offer $3.9 billion in grants by 2020 to developing nations for clean energy projects.
Barroso said the EU will provide a total of $18 billion in climate grants to other nations over the next seven years. He said $2.6 billion of that would be leveraged to raised an additional €50 billion of private sector investment.
Observers have been looking for the EU, U.S. and other Western countries to step up financial commitments to help developing countries cope with the effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and floods, drought and other extreme weather linked to it.
Making those pledges at the summit could build more goodwill heading into formal negotiations next year in Paris, Jennifer Morgan, climate and energy director with the World Resources Institute, said in a recent media call.
Morgan said she was watching to see whether a few big countries would put down enough money to meet the U.N. Green Climate Fund’s $10 billion target for this year. Nations established the investment vehicle at 2009 negotiations in Copenhagen, and it is expected to make its first disbursements next year.
“It seems the Green Climate Fund will reach the goal of $10 billion by the end of the year,” Morgan said.
The U.S. isn’t likely to make a similar financial commitment, Morgan said.
President Obama will outline some steps his administration will take to assist developing nations in adapting to the effects of climate change when he addresses the summit on Tuesday.
