Reuters AlertNet Lite - German SPD urges Merkel to resist EU on emissions

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German SPD urges Merkel to resist EU on emissions

09 Jan 2007 12:58:57 GMT
Source: Reuters

BERLIN, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Germany's Social Democrats, who share power with Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats, has urged the chancellor in a letter to take a tough line with Brussels on its plans to cut carbon emissions. Government sources have told Reuters Germany is set to yield to demands from the European Union to cut its planned emissions under Europe's carbon trading scheme, the EU's main weapon against climate change.

But Social Democrat (SPD) leader Kurt Beck has warned Merkel against such a move in a letter that was obtained by Reuters on Tuesday.

"I ask you not to get involved in hasty compromises with the Commission which would have difficult consequences," Beck wrote in the letter, which was sent in late December.

"At the moment I think it is necessary to leave open the possibility of legal action."

The centre-left SPD, which had led a coalition with the Green party until elections in 2005, now fears the curbs could put the modernisation of Germany's coal industry at risk and endanger jobs.

The Commission and the German government are expected to agree on carbon dioxide emission levels from 2008 to 2012 by the end of January.

Beck demanded that the EU should at least grant an extension to the deadline.

The row over emissions is clouding the start of Germany's EU presidency, during which Merkel wants to treat energy and climate change as priorities.

The EU ruled last year that Germany's emissions quota should not exceed 453 million tonnes for the 2008-2012 period, down from Berlin's proposal of 465 million tonnes.

Members of the EU Commission are in Berlin on Tuesday to meet the German cabinet.

The European Commission is to unveil new proposals on climate change on Wednesday which will urge the 27-member bloc to commit to unilateral cuts of carbon dioxide emissions of 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, according to EU officials.

The plans are more ambitious than existing targets.

The bloc will also call on the world's industrialised nations to agree to a collective cut of 30 percent by 2020 in the emissions blamed for climate change, one official has said. (Reporting by Markus Wacket, Berlin Newsroom, +49 30 2888 5230, madeline.chambers@reuters.com)

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Last updated:Tue Jan 9 12:59:51 2007