Las Urbanistas

(03-10) 04:00 PST Paris — Along with specials to Luxor and Sidney, French tour operator Voyageurs du Monde is pitching a more unusual offer: For an extra $40, clients can help offset their share of Earth-warming carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere by airliners jetting them to holiday getaways.

“Obviously, it’s good for our business when we know that 85 percent of our clients look for companies that are environmentally correct,” said Voyageurs head Jean-Francois Rial, who hopes to raise nearly $5 million in donations this year for climate-friendly projects in developing countries. “But our goal is also to save our planet for our children.”

All of Europe officially agrees with that goal. The 27 nations of the European Union adopted rules on Friday requiring that one-fifth of all energy used come from renewable sources by 2020.

While key details remain to be worked out, the EU plan calls for specific targets rather than the voluntary cutbacks on greenhouse gases advocated by the Bush administration. The new rules go further than the pollution-reduction requirements of the Kyoto Protocol, which went into effect without U.S. participation.

“We assume leadership with this unilateral reduction,” French President Jacques Chirac said Friday at the EU summit in Brussels. “This is part of the great moments of European history.”

European governments and businesses already are investing in an arsenal of emissions-cutting ventures. Wind turbines are mushrooming across rugged hills in Spain and Scotland. Bicycle lanes slice through Paris and Berlin. Clean-energy investment is blossoming, and the 27-member European Union is mulling ambitious goals to cut emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 — beyond Kyoto Protocol targets — along with its dependence on imported fossil fuel.

But as California embarks on its own emissions-cutting efforts, analysts say Europe also offers a sobering lesson of flawed objectives and unfilled promises.

“There’s a big gap between thinking and action, and more leadership in concept than on the ground,” said former EU Environmental Director Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, echoing the conclusion of other experts. “Hard choices still remain.”

Europe already has established the world’s largest mandatory emissions trading system — a scheme that offers polluters market-based incentives to reduce greenhouse gases. By setting caps and allowing industries to buy and sell carbon credits on the market, the system is designed to encourage businesses to pollute less — or at least to mitigate their emissions by investing in reforestation or other carbon dioxide-reducing projects.

“Other countries are finding it very difficult to meet their Kyoto targets, but the EU is taking this incredibly seriously,” said Beverly Darkin, a climate change expert at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a London think tank. “The fact we’ve got an EU-wide emissions trading scheme demonstrates our willingness to put regulatory measures in place to tackle the problem.”

Critics argue the trading system hurts European competitiveness, while supporters predict the 2-year-old venture will drive future emissions cuts and a rush in green investment.

Most agree, however, that it remains a work in progress.

“Emissions trading has created a sea change in public opinion and business thinking, but it remains largely symbolic,” said Carlo Jaeger, a leading climate specialist at Potsdam University in Germany. “In terms of actual emissions reductions, this has been a missed opportunity.”

Experts like Jaeger fault many European governments for offering companies overly generous caps, thereby giving them little incentive to conserve rather than trade. The EU is cracking down, as it sets caps for the 2008-2012 trading period. But the scheme includes only the largest polluters — steel, power and cement, for example — that account for roughly 40 percent of Europe’s carbon emissions.

Left out of the equation are industries that produce the other 60 percent — such as agriculture and road transportation — although the EU plans to enforce emissions quotas for another greenhouse culprit, airline companies, by 2011.

While polls show many Europeans consider climate change a major threat, green rhetoric by their leaders is nuanced by powerful interests at home. Chancellor Angela Merkel has made global warming a top priority during Germany’s current EU presidency but has balked at imposing speed limits on her nation’s autobahns. And a recent EU proposal to impose mandatory carbon dioxide emissions for new vehicles was watered down under pressure from car manufacturers.

“It’s hurting competitiveness,” said Margo Thorning, managing director of the International Council for Capital Formation, a conservative think tank in Brussels that opposes the EU’s emissions-cutting plans. “And this really isn’t going to do much in terms of global emissions reductions.”

Without significant pollution-cutting actions by the United States and major developing countries like China and India, Thorning and other critics argue, unilateral European efforts are useless. Even in Europe, newer EU members such as Lithuania fear stricter controls will hurt economic growth.

But as energy entrepreneurs in California have noted, there is money to be made from greener legislation. “If we go further on climate-change policy, that will drive innovation, and that will create economic opportunities,” said Fanny Calder, facilitator for Britain’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change, a group of local and international business executives lobbying for tougher emission-cutting measures.

Some businesses are already reaping windfalls. In France, renewable energy company EDF Energies Nouvelles saw its shares surge 18 percent during its first day of trading in November. “We’re growing very quickly,” said EDF’s David Corchia, whose company operates in nine countries and is enjoying a robust 30 percent annual growth.

Others are earning an image boost from going green. The British supermarket chain Tesco is creating a “carbon footprint,” allowing customers to evaluate the amount of carbon in the products they buy. Entities as varied as the Norwegian government and the Swiss-based international soccer association FIFA are buying carbon credits on the market to offset their emissions from air travel.

British economist Nicolas Stern, who wrote an influential government report last year on climate change, told the International Herald Tribune recently that Europe’s carbon trading may grow to $30 billion, from its present $1 billion level.

“There’s an enormous interest,” in emissions trading, said Frank Brannvoll, the Brussels managing director for Point Carbon, a consulting group specializing in the energy market. “Climate is now part of everyday conversation. This makes many companies want to jump in.”

In Paris, Voyageurs du Monde’s Rial says 8 percent of his customers have signed onto his carbon-offsetting program. However small, he argues, their contribution will make a difference.

“Of course, we are minor compared to the global problem,” Rial said. “But we have the capacity to influence people which goes beyond our size.”

New European Union targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and using more renewable energy:

– Greenhouse gases

Now: 15 EU nations have agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 8 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Most of the hard work will take place in the next five years as major carbon polluters — heavy industry and power plants — trade carbon-dioxide allowances that encourage them to cut emissions.

New: All 27 EU nations will cut overall greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. There would be a 30 percent cut if other world regions join in.

– Renewable energy

Now: The EU is likely to miss a target to generate 12 percent of all energy from renewable sources by 2010. In 2005, the EU got to 6 percent overall.

New: A binding target will force countries to invest heavily to draw 20 percent of all power from renewables by 2020. The EU said it will agree on individual targets with each country to take into account “different starting positions.”

– Biofuels

Now: The EU is also not on track to meet a 2010 target to use 5.75 percent of biofuels in transport fuel. The EU forecasts that at best biofuels will gain a 4.2 percent share in three years.

New: The EU wants to set a mandatory target for biofuels to replace 10 percent of transport gasoline and diesel by 2020, which will demand a rapid scale-up of technology to derive fuel from sugar and plant oil crops.

– Reducing energy use

Now: No target, although voluntary programs and campaigns promote lower-power appliances.

New: The EU set a range of actions to cut energy use 13 percent below current levels by promoting more efficient appliances, lighting and heating, including a plan to require energy-saving street lighting and lightbulbs in homes and offices. It will push for international cuts in energy consumption.

Source: Associated Press