One of the few seamless hearings of commissioners designates before the European Parliament was that of Connie Hedegaard, Danish commissioner designate for Climate Action (you can watch the video here, a synopsis is available here). If approved, she will be the first climate commissioner in the history of the European Union.

Mrs. Hedegaard has a strong background in climate policy and that was quite obvious during the hearing. She insisted on defending the idea that the COP 15 is NOT a failure mainly because of the level of participation in the conference. However, her statements on a few other issues during the hearing were more interesting to me.

On the climate talks Mrs. Hedegaard said that “some countries” decided to back down from earlier statements. She intently omitted mentioning those countries (and China in particular). She was quite critical of the European handling of climate finance (a point I have also raised before the conference). She spoke very much about the need for a common European position on climate talks. Mrs. Hedegaard hinted that there were still conflicting positions on the issue in the EU that may hinder our leadership: “Europe spoke with different voices”. As for the 30% CO2 emissions reduction target for the EU in 2020 she said that the EU can probably “get there before Mexico”.

On the related issue of carbon leakage she said that the EU should be cautious and balanced, without going into details.

She said that she would like to see the European emissions trading system (ETS) linked with the future American trading system by 2015 (which is quite ambitious).

Mrs. Hedegaard was quite wary of the carbon capture and storage technology (CCS), emphasizing on the high energy consumption of CCS.

She said that it’s a fact that nuclear energy exists in the world, but said that countries like Denmark have chosen a different path.

On the EU policy front she highlighted on some of the priorities: transport, green procurement, and research and development (R&D).