Europe must retain climate leadership for economic benefit - report
Fri 15 November 2013
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A new report from a 'think tank' which advises the German government says that abdicating from climate leadership would undermine Europe's economy and hand a huge economic advantage to China and the US. The report says that the EU is no longer the world leader on climate policies and that other major countries have caught up or even outpaced it.
The report's release coincided with COP 19, the UN climate talks which recently concluded in Warsaw. The hosts of the talks, Poland, are one of the EU member states which has suggested that the EU is too far ahead in climate leadership and that the region should be only a part of, not the leader of, global climate efforts and that acting alone will damage competitiveness.
The report says such a shift would only harm Europe's ailing industrial sector and that it is no longer true to say the European Union is an isolated environmental leader. Other countries, including the US and China, are moving ahead to carve out their share of the multi-billion low-carbon market.
EurActiv reports that already China's solar equipment exports are worth almost as much as its exports of shoes, making it a major threat to EU technology. In 2011, China's solar exports totalled $35.8 billion (€26.6 billion) compared with $39 billion (€29 billion) for shoes, UN data showed.
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