David Miliband

Buyers' Remorse

The European Council will be remembered for the confidence of the European proposals for global financial regulation. We are not going to argue about where credit belongs for their creation: suffice to say they are ideas with which we are more than comfortable.

But the Council has set the scene for a very serious discussion between now and December about how the EU is to meet the ambitious climate change goals that were agreed in March 2007. There is no question that some of those who have doubts about the climate change agenda, or still don't believe in the economics of climate change after Nicholas Stern's report, are getting buyers' remorse about the March 2007 deal. But what is their argument?

Surely not that we can avoid making decisions in December. By then a new US President will be giving indications of how he plans to handle this issue. We cannot end up in a situation where Europe does not have a climate change position and America does. Nor that we should revisit the targets (no one actually suggested this at this Council).

Nor, on the other side, that there does not need to be proper recognition in the final package of the particular situations of different countries or the need for cost effectiveness in the way the climate agenda is pursued.

In the event this was early sparring. But stick to the targets and it doesn't matter that much how they are hit - more energy efficiency, more renewables, more nuclear, they all count towards a low carbon agenda.

Posted at 17:18 16 October 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[3]