Considerations on COM(2001)579 - Approval of the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the joint fulfilment of commitments thereunder

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dossier COM(2001)579 - Approval of the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the joint fulfilment of commitments ...
document COM(2001)579 EN
date April 25, 2002
 
(1) The ultimate objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ("the Convention"), which was approved on behalf of the Community by Council Decision 94/69/EC of 15 December 1993 concerning the conclusion of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(3), is to achieve stabilisation of greenhouse-gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level which prevents dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

(2) The Conference of the Parties to the Convention, at its first session, concluded that the commitment by developed countries to aim at returning, individually or jointly, their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer to 1990 levels by the year 2000 was inadequate for achieving the Convention's long-term objective of preventing dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. The Conference further agreed to begin a process to enable appropriate action to be taken for the period beyond 2000, through the adoption of a protocol or another legal instrument(4).

(3) This process resulted in the adoption on 11 December 1997 of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ("the Protocol")(5).

(4) The Conference of the Parties to the Convention, at its fourth session, decided to adopt the Buenos Aires Plan of Action, to reach agreement on the implementation of key elements of the Protocol at the sixth session of the Conference of the Parties(6).

(5) The core elements for the implementation of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action were agreed upon by consensus by the Conference of the Parties at its resumed sixth session in Bonn from 19 to 27 July 2001(7).

(6) A range of decisions giving effect to the Bonn Agreements were adopted by consensus by the Conference of the Parties at its seventh session in Marrakech from 29 October to 10 November 2001(8).

(7) The Protocol, under Article 24, is open for ratification, acceptance or approval by States and by regional economic integration organisations that have signed it.

(8) The Protocol, under Article 4, provides for Parties to fulfil their commitments under Article 3 jointly, acting in the framework of and together with a regional economic integration organisation.

(9) When the Protocol was signed in New York on 29 April 1998, the Community declared that it and its Member States would fulfil their respective commitments under Article 3(1) of the Protocol jointly in accordance with Article 4 thereof.

(10) In deciding to fulfil their commitments jointly in accordance with article 4 of the Kyoto Protocol, the Community and the Member States are jointly responsible, under paragraph 6 of that article and in accordance with article 24(2) of the Protocol, for the fulfilment by the Community of its quantified emission reduction commitment under Article 3(1) of the Protocol. Consequently, and in accordance with Article 10 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, Member States individually and collectively have the obligation to take all appropriate measures, whether general or particular, to ensure fulfilment of the obligations resulting from action taken by the institutions of the Community, including the Community's quantified emission reduction commitment under the Protocol, to facilitate the achievement of this commitment and to abstain from any measure that could jeopardise the attainment of this commitment.

(11) The legal base of any further Decision in relation to the approval by the Community of future commitments in respect of emission reductions will be determined by the content and effect of that Decision.

(12) The Council agreed upon the contributions of each Member State to the overall Community reduction commitment in the Council conclusions of 16 June 1998(9). Certain Member States expressed assumptions concerning base year emissions and common and coordinated policies and measures. The contributions are differentiated to take account i.a. of expectations for economic growth, the energy mix and the industrial structure of the respective Member State. The Council further agreed that the terms of the agreement would be included in the Council Decision on the approval of the Protocol by the Community. Article 4(2) of the Protocol requires the Community and its Member States to notify the Secretariat, established by Article 8 of the Convention, of the terms of this agreement on the date of deposit of their instruments of ratification or approval. The Community and its Member States have an obligation to take measures in order to enable the Community to fulfil its obligations under the Protocol without prejudice to the responsibility of each Member State towards the Community and other Member States to fulfilling its own commitments.

(13) The base-year emissions of the Community and its Member States will not be established definitively before the entry into force of the Protocol. Once these base-year emissions are definitively established and at the latest before the start of the commitment period, the Community and its Member States shall determine these emission levels in terms of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 8 of Council Decision 93/389/EEC of 24 June 1993 for a monitoring mechanism of Community CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions(10).

(14) The Gothenburg European Council on 15 and 16 June 2001 reaffirmed the determination of the Community and the Member States to meet their commitments under the Protocol, and stated that the Commission will prepare a proposal for ratification before the end of 2001 making it possible for the Community and its Member States to fulfil their commitment rapidly to ratify the Protocol.

(15) The Laeken European Council on 14 and 15 December 2001 confirmed the Union's determination to honour its commitment under the Kyoto Protocol and its desire that the Protocol should come into force before the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, 26 August to 4 September 2002.

(16) The measures necessary for the implementation of this Decision should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission(11).