The current commitments made under the Kyoto Protocol for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions run to 2012. Ahead of December's UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, MEPs in the Climate Change Temporary Committee heard on Thursday from representatives of major economies and international bodies on what should be done after 2012.

For John Ashton, the UK Foreign Office Special Representative on Climate Change, “what we are talking about is an effort to build a world economy in energy which, by the end of the century, should be zero-carbon.” The key problem, he added, “is the absence of a political foundation [upon which] to build the appropriate policies.” Climate change, he said, is not a long-term problem: “It is a today problem… We’re a long way from establishing the sense of energy we need. We have to get it right the first time." Although governments set emission targets, many of the most important decisions are in fact “those made in the board-room. This is largely about the direction of the flow of private capital”, he said.

Views from Tokyo, Washington and Beijing

Takekazu Kawamura, head of the Japanese mission to the EU, said Japan believed that all major emitters should participate in the agreed framework. The post-2012 model he said, “must be flexible and diverse”, reconciling “climate protection and economic growth.” Asked by Romana Jordan Cizelj (EPP-ED, SI) to evaluate the EU's Emission Trading Scheme, Mr Kawamura acknowledged its merits but stressed, at the same time, that as long as countries were committed to goals and had systems of measuring their achievements, no universal system was required.

Speaking on behalf of the Chinese mission, Ronglai Zhong stressed the need to develop “common but differentiated” responsibilities at the global level – pointing, among other things, to the need for a universal mechanism for green technology-transfer. China, he added, would like to see climate change objectives promoted within the context of sustainable development policies and the UN Millennium Goals. Having already reached “great results” in tackling climate change, as he put it, Beijing had pledged to further restructure its economy to promote green technologies and reduce CO2 emissions: it will have achieved “10 percent renewable energy [in its energy mix] by 2010 and 16 percent by 2020”

“Economic growth, energy security, and climate change must be pursued in an integrated way”, began Bolden Gray, US ambassador to the EU. However, he added, “we still do not have the technologies needed to do the things we want to do”. Briefing members on the outcome of the September meeting of major economies in Washington, he outlined some of America’s climate change objectives, among them the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Practice what you preach

The US is taking a somewhat different attitude than other industrialized powers, said Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Climate Change. Unlike the EU, for one, it advocates "a voluntary approach, which consists of national commitments written into national legislation". He agreed with Mr Ashton on the important role of the private sector. “In order for us to make investment decisions,” said the UN's top climate change official, paraphrasing the attitude of business and industry leaders towards policymakers, “you have to give us some sense of policy direction”. Prompted by Chris Davies (ALDE, UK) to consider what he would view as "a failure" at Bali, Mr De Boer asserted that he only had criteria for success. If we could bring developing countries on board by helping them achieve both sustainable development, increased investment opportunities, as well as reductions in emissions, he remarked, we would be doing a good job.