Europe Reaches Agreement On Greenhouse Gas Reductions

European leaders have negotiated an agreement that will reduce carbon dioxide emissions 20 percent by 2020, a compromise that calls for paying east European countries to compensate for the added costs to their heavily polluting industries and power sector. Exemptions made for industry under the agreement provoked criticisms from environmental advocates, including one WWF official who charged the European Union policy has “no captain” and a “mutinous crew.” But French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the outgoing president of the EU, called it an historic compromise that puts Europe at the forefront of greenhouse gas reductions worldwide. According to the agreement, which was reached in Brussels, the nine east European nations will receive payments from the EU’s emissions trading system. In addition, the coal-fired power sector of those nations will receive partial exemptions from paying into the trading scheme as they will be allowed to pay for emissions on a sliding scale until 2020, with industry responsibility for emissions payments gradually increasing during that time.