Developed countries should jointly reduce 2020 emissions by "at least" 30% and halt global forest loss no later than 2030, but reaching a position on CCS will be difficult, according to EU negotiating papers obtained by CE Daily.
The internal negotiating papers also reveal the EU's goals for Copenhagen.
The papers say the EU should aim to raise the ambition of developed country signatories to the Kyoto Protocol so that in aggregate they equate to a reduction of "at least" 30% below 1990 levels by 2020.
The EU also wants the U.S. to demonstrate a comparable effort.
It says global forest loss should be halted by 2030 "at the latest" and gross tropical deforestation should be reduced by at least 50% by 2020 compared to current levels.
On the issue of finance, the EU paper acknowledges that financial support - short or long term – "is probably the most important bargaining chip that developed countries have at their disposal".
"This bargaining chip should be used wisely in order to attain the two-degree target," it says.
"Long term and short term financing would need to be handled in different ways
"While the negotiations on the long term financing would need to focus on architectural and governance aspects the negotiations on short term financing should focus more on what we would like to finance."
The papers also note the lack of agreement on the final format or structure of financial pledges, for example the period covered and the review arrangements.
Key principles
The papers say "key principles" underpinning the EU position include preventing warming above two degrees Celsius and providing for "a regular review of commitments and actions in the context of new scientific findings, including [a] comprehensive review no later than 2016".
Another key principle is that outcomes must provide a "stable basis" for further development of the international climate regime that avoids unnecessary complexity.
In a paper on the likely structure of the Copenhagen outcome, the EU acknowledges that its preferred objective of a new legal instrument is not likely to be met at the talks.
Instead, it anticipates the outcome will comprise decisions that can quickly be developed into "legal agreement text" through a specified process – and hopefully in a form that will also be specified at Copenhagen.
To push its position, the EU is preparing short, "more political", wording that could be slotted into the overarching Copenhagen decision and longer, "more elaborated", text that could be dropped into supplementary decisions or documents or could form the basis of further work in 2010.
Minimise involvement in CCS debate
The papers note that resolving a position on carbon capture and storage (CCS) has been a difficult process internally for the EU and is also likely to be contentious at the talks.
"Realistically, it is hard to imagine reaching agreement on allowing CCS in[to] the [Kyoto Protocol's] Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)," they say.
The CDM creates carbon credits from projects in developing countries that reduce emissions.
"The positions between Parties opposed to CCS in the CDM on the one hand and Parties in favour of CCS in CDM seem to be locked," they say.
"Given that the EU holds a middle position between two extremes the EU should let the two extremes battle it out and not get entangled in the fight," the EU papers say.
Form of the post-2012 approach
The papers note that there are several options on the table for the form of a post-2012 approach.
It describes as unacceptable any move to simply amend the Kyoto Protocol (to which it is a party) and having only non-binding measures for developing countries and for the U.S. (which has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol and will not do so).
The EU favours a single new protocol that would supersede the Kyoto Protocol and cover all countries.
But the papers say it would be prepared to consider continuing the Kyoto Protocol (with new post-2012 commitments for its signatories) if it was accompanied by a "new (legally-binding) protocol under the convention" to capture actions by the U.S. and developing countries.
