Climate Change ¿What is the threat of Kyoto and how is the European Union commited in?

The European Union and Kyoto

The European Union is committed to reducing its 1990 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 8% between the years 2008-2012 under the Kyoto Protocol on climage change. Meeting this target without damaging European competitiveness poses a major challenge. The European Union is determined to take the lead in the fight against climate change and has ratified by 1 June 2002 the Kyoto Protocol - a first step in a longer-term global environmental effort to protect our planet.
The protocol stes limits on greenhouse gas emissions for industrialised countries and the transition economies of Russia and the EU applicants in central and eastern Europe for a five-year period beginning in 2008.
In 2001, the European Commission has tabled in its report on its European Climate Change Programme and in a Communication to Council and Parliament a series of actions for the next two years that will help to reduce green house gas emissions. These actions concern the energy sector, transport and industry as well as so called cross cutting issues, which will have effects on all sectors.

Emissions trading

The proposal for a Directive on emissions trading is currently the most prominent climate change action for the Community. Emission trading can minimise the costs of compliance with the Kyoto Protocol and the European Commission, after extensive consultation with industry and Member States is proposing that an emission trading scheme, mainly for large energy intensive installations, should be introduced in 2005.

The scheme would apply to between 4,000 and 5,000 individual energy-intensive plants ( above a certain size ). Between them, these account for nearly half of the Union's total carbon dioxide emissions.

The scheme would cover electricity generators and producers of iron and steel, glass, cement, pottery and bricks. For the time being, it would not include the chemical industry, which is responsible for barely 1% of all direct emissions, nor the waste and transport sectors. Small and medium-sized businesses would also be largely excluded.

Under the proposal, every large industrial and energy installations covered by the scheme would be issued with a permit certifying its annual CO2 emission levels. If it succeeds in emitting less, it may sell its surplus certificates to an operator that has gone above the permitted ceiling. Financial penalties would be imposed on plants whose emissions exceeded the allowances they had been allocated or purchased.

The system's value is that it uses market forces to transfer the ability to reduce emissions to those who can achieve this most cheaply, and, by requiring producers to pay for extra allowances that may be required, is consistent with the 'polluter pays' principle.

Kyoto and competitiveness

Reducing compliance costs in meeting the 8% Kyoto target is essential if the international competitiveness of European companies is not to be undermined. This is especially true since US withdrawal from the process suggests that American businesses may face few costs in implementing their climate change measures.

Competition may also come from Russia. The collapse of its economy in the past decade means that its current level of emissions is way below the 2008-2012 Kyoto target. This could give its industry a potential advantage and encourage the country either to sell its surplus allowances or use them to attract inward investment in some industrial sectors.

The fact that Kyoto commits only industrialised countries to quantitative emission reduction targets may give the developing world a competitive edge with regard to greenhouse gas emissions. This could encourage some companies based in Europe to consider moving their operations overseas. However, distance from the EU market, a different regulatory environment and smaller pool of qualified labour should offset any such tendencies.

Another factor influencing competitiveness is the possibility available under the Kyoto Protocol to offset tree planting efforts and forestry management against emission reduction targets. Countries such as Canada, Japan and Russia will benefit proportionately more than the EU from this opportunity.

Costs of Kyoto

Leadership in the fight against climate change does not come without a price, although this would have to be balanced against the effects of inaction if no measures are taken against greenhouses gases emisssions. Because of the many variables involved, such as energy inputs, growth of GDP and trade-offs with other policy areas, it is impossible to give firm figures for the costs of compliance.

However, estimates for the annual cost to the Union as a whole range from less than 0.1% to nearly 1% of GDP. The relative costs for individual sectors will depend on whether some are called on to make greater reductions than others or whether a flat rate target is set across the board.

Energy-intensive sectors such as steel, basic chemicals and pulp and paper, precisely because they have already made significant emission reduction efforts, and face trough international competition, could incur higher marginal reduction costs.

On the other hand, companies moving early to develop, patent and implement the necessary technology to reduce emissions or produce alternative forms of energy may gain a competitive advantage.

The overall economic effects of addressing climate change under the Kyoto Protocol are very difficult to quantify. It is clear that there are risks. However, there are also potential opportunities.

Everything is possible, from triggering relocation of some industry to outside the EU to winning a competitive advantage by creating a stimulus for the development of new leading-edge technology.

This is why it is so important to start off on the right foot and keep a proper balance between the environmental and economic dimensions of the problem. This is in the best spirit of the Union's commitment to the principle of sustainable development by taking into account the economic, social and environmental dimensions in its decision-making process.. This in turn requires the early development of performance structures to carry out reliable impact assessments.

The European Commission Enterprise and Industry, Reports and Estudies

China and India join Galileo

China and India have decided to participate in Galileo, the EU’s satellite navigation system. This is a sign of Asian countries’ desire to move beyond mere trade relations with the European Union.

The Galileo system, to be operational in 2008, will provide a more accurate alternative to the US network of global positioning satellites (GPS). Galileo will primarily be used for the geographic positioning of vehicles and other transport modes, as well as for scientific research, land management and disaster monitoring. It will also have government applications accessible only to EU member states.

What is Galileo?

Galileo will be Europe’s own global navigation satellite system, providing a highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning service under civilian control. It will be inter-operable with GPS and GLONASS, the two other global satellite navigation systems.
A user will be able to take a position with the same receiver from any of the satellites in any combination. By offering dual frequencies as standard, however, Galileo will deliver real-time positioning accuracy down to the metre range, which is unprecedented for a publicly available system.
It will guarantee availability of the service under all but the most extreme circumstances and will inform users within seconds of a failure of any satellite. This will make it suitable for applications where safety is crucial, such as running trains, guiding cars and landing aircraft.
The first experimental satellite, part of the so-called Galileo System Test Bed (GSTB) will be launched in the second semester of 2005. The objective of this experimental satellite is to characterize the critical technologies, which are already under development under ESA contracts. Thereafter up to four operational satellites will be launched in the timeframe 2005-2006 to validate the basic Galileo space and related ground segment. Once this In-Orbit Validation (IOV) phase has been completed, the remaining satellites will be installed to reach the Full Operational Capability (FOC) in 2008.
The fully deployed Galileo system consists of 30 satellites (27 operational + 3 active spares), positioned in three circular Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) planes in 23616 km altitude above the Earth, and at an inclination of the orbital planes of 56 degrees with reference to the equatorial plane. Once this is achieved, the Galileo navigation signals will provide a good coverage even at latitudes up to 75 degrees north, which corresponds to the North Cape, and beyond. The large number of satellites together with the optimisation of the constellation, and the availability of the three active spare satellites, will ensure that the loss of one satellite has no discernible effect on the user.
Two Galileo Control Centres (GCC) will be implemented on European ground to provide for the control of the satellites and to perform the navigation mission management. The data provided by a global network of twenty Galileo Sensor Stations (GSS) will be sent to the Galileo Control Centres through a redundant communications network. The GCC’s will use the data of the Sensor Stations to compute the integrity information and to synchronize the time signal of all satellites and of the ground station clocks. The exchange of the data between the Control Centres and the satellites will be performed through so-called up-link stations. Five S-band up-link stations and 10 C-band up-link stations will be installed around the globe for this purpose.
As a further feature, Galileo will provide a global Search and Rescue (SAR) function, based on the operational Cospas-Sarsat system. To do so, each satellite will be equipped with a transponder, which is able to transfer the distress signals from the user transmitters to the Rescue Co-ordination Centre, which will then initiate the rescue operation. At the same time, the system will provide a signal to the user, informing him that his situation has been detected and that help is under way. This latter feature is new and is considered a major upgrade compared to the existing system, which does not provide a feedback to the user.

Sources: European Space Agency (ESA) and Europa Information Sources

Open European Community, Brussels on May 6 2006

The European Community, allways close to citizens, will be opened on Saturday May 6 to all citizens with the democracy festival, where everybody will be wellcomed on its headquarters to explain how it works.
Germán Yáñez, European Express.


Europe is growing larger and will expand even further, opening up new horizons and deeper cooperation for its citizens. This is why the European Institutions have chosen worker and student mobility and Social Europe as the stars of its 2006 Festival of Europe.
European Comission press releases.

WTO Director-General PASCAL LAMY CALLS FOR “SHARED SENSE OF URGENCY” IN THE TRADE NEGOTIATIONS

Director-General Pascal Lamy, in his introductory statement to the TradeNegotiations Committee on 1 May 2006, said that finding consensus in thenegotiations “remains doable, but only if a sense of urgency—which I feelis not always shared by all—starts appearing in each and every delegation”“We must now focus our efforts on working intensively, continuously andin an effective manner on a text-based negotiating process, which issolidly anchored in Geneva”, he added.
> More on the TNC

TravelEurope: The Channel Islands: Jersey and Guerney

You will find the Channel Islands nestling in the Bay of Cherbourg, close to France, and indeed the French influence in all the islands is immediately obvious as soon as you step off the plane or boat.

The Channel Islands are constitutionally separate from the UK and France and to all intents and purposes are totally self-governing. The States of Jersey and The States of Guernsey (known as The States) are the effective legislators and government and 'run' the islands at a local level. There is also a link to the Privy Council and the Queen in the UK as the islands are ultimately a British Dependency.

Jersey is the largest, and perhaps the most well known, of the islands at 45 square miles and a population of some 90,000 inhabitants. Guernsey comes next with around 60,000 inhabitants in 25 square miles, and the likes of Alderney, Sark, Herm and other islands are much smaller, but all with their own indigenous population.

Transport links to the islands are extensive with air and sea links to both the UK and French mainlands and therefore hopping on to a plane or boat is as natural as boarding a train when attempting to get from A to B - and the travel time is very short being between 30 and 60 minutes depending on your destination.

An array of restaurants, hotels and pubs provide options for all tastes and budgets but generally all establishments are of a very high standard catering for both the high demands of the business sector as well as the discerning tourist. As such, you will find an incredible amount of options for leisure facilities to cope with the demands and interests of the very cosmopolitan populations in all the islands - not least of course the high quality golf courses and wide variety of water based activities.

IESE, The Business School of University of Navarra becames the Leading Distributor of Harvard Business Cases in Spanish

Harvard Business School Publishing (HBSP) has become a new academic partner, adding more than 500 official case translations from this prestigious U.S. school to IESEP?s catalogue. The agreement between both distributors underscores IESE Publishing?s position as the distributor offering the largest number of business cases in Spanish in the world.The addition of Harvard cases brings the total number of documents and products on offer to 4,800. Read now, in Spanish, cases from Harvard Business School, focusing on companies all over the world and covering a wide range of topics.