Europe insists on accounting rules in climate deal

A draft proposal issued after the first week of UN climate talks in Copenhagen fails to include rules on emissions monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) to make sure a post-2012 climate agreement leads to actual reductions, the EU has said.

In a statement released on Saturday the Swedish EU presidency called for a "robust compliance mechanism", saying the "loosely framed agreement" in the draft proposal was "far below what can be accepted by the EU".

The draft text was issued on Friday by the chair of the working group on long-term cooperative action (AWG-LCA), one of Copenhagen's two negotiation tracks. Discussions in this area seem to be making some progress.

However developing countries are frustrated at the sluggish progress made under the Kyoto protocol track. The Swedish EU presidency also said it wanted rapid progress on issues such as surplus AAUs and LULUCF accounting rules under this track.

Dutch environmental assessment agency PBL has raised concerns over Russia's surplus AAUs. Under Kyoto Russia is allowed to use its large AAU reserves beyond 2012. This would seriously undermine mitigation efforts and torpedo carbon prices, it says.

The EU reiterated that a new binding agreement solely on the Kyoto protocol was "not an option", arguing climate actions pledged under this track would not be enough to limit a global temperature rise to two degrees.

• Climate
• Trade