Italy's climate threat

Herald Sun
Friday 17/10/2008 Page: 42

BRUSSELS - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has threatened to torpedo the European Union's climate change plans, branding them too big a burden for business amid the global financial crisis. His announcement, at an EU summit in Brussels, came despite pleas from fellow leaders not to abandon the targets in the face of growing financial pressure, although Poland also appeared ready to vote parts of it down. "I have announced my intention to exercise my veto," the Italian leader told a press conference yesterday on the sidelines of the summit. "Our businesses are in absolutely no position at the moment to absorb the costs of the regulations that have been proposed," he said.

Last year, EU leaders vowed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, compared with 1990 levels, and also pledged to have renewable energies make up 20 per cent of all energy sources. But many EU nations have begun to baulk at the costs involved and the consequences to industry of the climate change goals. The call for special attention to be paid to economic concerns in finalising the climate package is just what Brussels and other EU member states had feared as the financial crisis takes hold.

"This is not the time to abandon a climate change agenda which is important for the future," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned ahead of the summit. European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso also urged the leaders to press ahead and not abandon Europe's leadership role. In London, Australian Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said now was as good a time as any to introduce tougher greenhouse gas targets. Ms Wong said the risks of delaying outweighed the risks of acting on climate change.