By Pete Harrison and Ilona Wissenbach
LUXEMBOURG, Oct 10 (Reuters) - France, Germany and Austria
called on Friday for an easing of EU climate ambitions to help
industries facing an economic downturn, causing green groups to
warn that the battle against climate change was in jeopardy.
The European Union hopes other nations will follow its lead
by agreeing a global deal, mindful of United Nations warnings
that climate change will lead to droughts, floods and rising sea
levels.
But Austria said tumbling stock markets necessitated a
cautious line on making industry pay to emit carbon dioxide, as
this policy could raise costs and hand an advantage to rivals
outside the bloc.
Environmentalists countered that moves to reduce Europe's
consumption of fossil fuels would protect its nations from
spiking energy prices, and would create millions of jobs in
construction of renewable energy sources such as wind turbines.
"This is alarm level red," Luxembourg lawmaker Claude Turmes
told reporters. "Lobbyists from every dirty industry are trying
to profit from this crisis."
Economic cycles come and go, but climate change is a
permanent threat that needs tackling immediately, European
Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas told Reuters.
"This is an important moment in the negotiations, and I am
sure reason will prevail," he added.
That view was backed by British climate change minister Ed
Miliband, who said: "The current economic difficulties make
these issues more important, not less."
FREE POLLUTION
The European Union has ambitious plans to cut carbon dioxide
emissions by a fifth by 2020, compared to 1990 levels, partly by
making power generators and heavy industry pay for permits to
pollute in its flagship Emission Trading Scheme (ETS).
But some eastern European states have threatened to derail
the proposal, saying it puts a costly burden on their highly
polluting communist-era coal-fired power stations.
Heavy industries, such as steel, aluminium and chemicals
have also raised opposition, saying they will lose out to rivals
in neighbouring regions that have less environmental regulation
and therefore lower costs.
France sought on Thursday to diffuse that opposition,
preparing a draft paper that would give sectors like steel an
easier deal than EU lawmakers proposed earlier this week -- when
they said heavy industry should start paying for emissions
permits from 2013.
"It is very symbolic that we discuss, on the very day when
stock markets across the world are in freefall,...how to treat
energy-intensive industry," Austrian energy minister Martin
Bartenstein said.
Unless it is protected, heavy industry will relocate from
the EU to other countries, where it would continue polluting,
German state secretary Peter Hintze said.
But Joris den Blanken, Greenpeace EU climate and energy
director, said investment in energy-efficient technologies and
clean and renewable energies would bring over a million new jobs
in the energy sector alone.
"EU leaders must protect European families from the costs
and insecurity of increasingly expensive fuel imports," he
added.
(Editing by Anthony Barker)
