Greeny News

Could become European Green MEPs 'carbon dioxide emissions ambitions, as the Conservatives dilute proposals

The European parliament on Tuesday rejected a key report that would have toughened the EU stance on greenhouse gas emissions, after political wrangling that wrecked hopes of a compromise.

A rebellion of the UK 's Tory MPs contributed to the vote against a tougher target, how much carbon dioxide emissions should be Swing in 2020, but was not decisive, according to insiders.

The vote not to put an end to green activists 'hopes for a more ambitious reduction target - a bigger cut of 30% to 2020 levels by 1990 instead of 20% - will be discussed as the subject further, but it is a setback.

The political wrangling involved a number of changes proposed by conservative factions of deputies, that the resulting resolution weakened to an extent which would not be acceptable, the Green MEP grouping.

Greens in Parliament will now try to push harder for the target in future votes, and by involving Member States and the European Commission.

Several MEPs echoed Martin Callanan, who told the Guardian: "Conservative MEPs have always been sceptical of the EU unilaterally increasing its target to 30% without a worldwide agreement. I am in favour of increasing the EU target to 30%, or even higher, in the context of a global agreement where our competitor countries take similar action. Increasing our own targets while the rest of the world does nothing will have virtually no measurable effect on global emissions, because it will force large EU emitters to relocate to other countries outside the EU where they will continue to emit at a much lower cost."