European Commission to propose new climate change programme

Environment Commissioner Dimas announced during the opening debate of Green Week that the EU is working on a second climate change programme. It is likely to be in line with more ambitious targets for the post-2012 period.

During the opening debate of 2005 Green Week, Commissioner Dimas announced that the Commission will launch a new phase of its European Climate Change Programme (ECCP) in the autumn of 2005. It is still unclear what precise measures will be contained in this new programme, but new policy initiatives on energy efficiency, technology transfer, climate change adaptation and more use of the Kyoto-based flexible instruments will be part of the new proposals.

When asked about the role of nuclear in the future, the commissioner said that it was up to member states to decide whether to build new nuclear power plants as a climate change policy. But he warned that public opinion in Europe is opposed and that there is still a major problem with radioactive waste and the high economic cost of these plants.

Mr Dimas also hoped for a concrete action plan from the G8 Gleneagle Summit in July and a commitment to start new international negotiations on greenhouse gas reductions from the UN's COP11 conference in Montreal from 28 November to 9 December 2005.