Industry demands EU change climate change stance

In a new paper published ahead of the UN's climate change summit in Durban which begins on Monday, the manufacturers' organisation EEF said it believes that the EU must overcome its obsession with cap-and-trade as the beacon for tackling climate change. Instead, it must be open to the world adopting a range of equivalent approaches. EEF chief executive, Terry Scuoler, said: "The EU needs to rethink how it provides leadership to the rest of the world in tackling climate change. The prospect of an internationally binding agreement remains remote and we need a new approach to breach the current deadlock. We urgently need a legally binding deal to develop a global response to tackle climate change. But we must also ensure that we have a level playing field and Europe should go no further until other nations commit to comparable measures. EEF's paper argues that the EU should look to other tools to secure buy-in from key countries not signed up to a global agreement, such as China, the US, India and Brazil. In particular, it should be open to Carbon Intensity Targets, as adopted by China, rather than absolute ones. Carbon Intensity Targets are similar to the UK's existing Climate Change Agreements which have already cut carbon dioxide emissions from industry by an estimated 28.5million tonnes per year.