Europe's top 10 emitting installations

The EU got ahead of the COP15 game in 2008 by announcing that it would cut its CO2 emissions by 20% on 1990 levels, moving to 30% if other developed countries offered similar commitments. The stated aim was to use this ‘conditional’ target as a carrot to get other countries, not least the United States, to do more on climate change. A worthy aim perhaps, but, as very well seen by everybody, this bait doesn’t seem to have been very enticing to anyone at the Copenhagen talks.

The US arrived with its offer of cutting emissions by 17% on 2005 levels, and left with the same target – unprepared to go further until domestic legislation had been passed. Other emerging economies such as Brazil and Mexico came straight out and offered challenging targets to cut their emissions, and in their case, EU's offer didn't act as a trigger anyway.

Then, in the very last moment of negociations there were rumors that EU might actually raise its pledge to 40% emission cuts. They never did.

To keep the momentum going in Europe, Sandbag has just launched the EU: Not Done Yet! action to tie in with the international post-Copenhagen theme proposed by other TckTckTck/GCCA members.

The action consists of a letter to new President Rompuy and Prime Minister Zapatero calling for a figure of 30% or more when Europe submits its targets to the Copenhagen Accord on Jan 31st. Sandbag is seeking other NGOs to undersign the letter to help kickstart this rapid turn-around campaign. Thank you to Christian Aid and UNICEF for signing on first to get the ball rolling.

You can sign up to the campaign yourselves and promote the campaign to your members, friends and networks (like Eleanor did), both across and outside Europe. The briefing paper providing some background to the campaign can be read here.