The European Parliament will  vote today on legislation meant to cut the EU's carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent in the next 12 years.

Three reports will come to the Parliament's Environment Committee for a vote. The first is a controversial revision of the EU's greenhouse gas-emissions trading scheme proposed by Avril Doyle, an Irish member of the European Parliament. The second deals with each member country's share of the burden of cutting greenhouse gas emissions and was prepared by Satu Hassi, a Finnish MEP. The last report, presented by UK MEP Chris Davies, creates a legal framework for geological storage of carbon dioxide (such as that captured by coal-fired power plants when generating electricity).

While controversy is not new to environmental proposals in the European Parliament, concerns about the new measures focus more squarely on the current economic crunch. A number of the EU's member states have made it clear that they want to slow down the planned adoption of these three envrionmental measures. Among other concerns is the EU's ability to implement the measures in the face of a growing economic crisis. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor who was once a major supporter of environmentalism, has hinted that she may not support the new measures. Germany's foreign minister told the Financial Times last week that, "One cannot rule out that interest in protecting the climate will change because of such a crisis."

A number of European industries have argued that the prices they will have to pay for their carbon emissions are too high and may very well damage the European economy. These prices, according to the argument will make it impossible for European manufacturers to compete with other around the world — a number of companies have made it clear that they would take their manufacturing abroad in such a situation.

The measures continue to enjoy support from a number of corners. The EU's Environment Commissioner has argued that the financial crisis "is here one day and it is gone another day," the "climate crisis will be there always and we must face it." The Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change, made up of major companies including Philips, Shell, Tesco, Vodafone, Allianz, Holcim, Kingfisher and Skanska, are all also working to push the new legislation through the European Parliament. Until the Oct. 7 vote, however, it is impossible to tell what the end result will be.

Photo — *bene*