The EU Climate Summit is underway, as negotiators seek to replace existing environmental goals for 2020. The conference could be a harbinger things to come for other climate talks to be held in the near future. These include a meeting of industrial nations to be held in Paris in 2015, aimed at forging a new international pact on the environment. Negotiators at this conference will attempt to develop a plan to limit the production and emission of carbon dioxide, along with other greenhouse gases.
European Union (EU) members largely agree on the general principle of reducing carbon emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2030. Some of the greatest challenges to an agreement include questions on how costs for reforms should be shared among nations on the continent.
Leaders from European Union want to see an improvement in energy efficiency, up to 30 percent. They are also striving for 27 percent of all energy produced on the continent to come from renewable sources.
Poland is one of the nations voicing the greatest number of objections to additional regulations controlling future climate change. That nation is highly-dependent on coal, and its president, Ewa Kopacz, is concerned about the effect of closing mines there. She came to hold her position on September 22, 2014, and this is her first international summit as leader.
Russia and the Ukraine are the largest suppliers of energy to Europe, and their proposals at the EU Climate Summit focus on more efficient use of domestic energy sources, along with reductions in the importation of fossil fuels from foreign sources.
Other concerns during negotiations include the role of nuclear power in relation to wind and solar power, and assisting less-developed nations in implementing proposed changes.
"If there isn't an agreement in Brussels among the countries that are furthest ahead on this issue, how are we going to convince the Chinese or the Americans or the poorer countries?" Francois Hollande, President of France and host of the 2015 talks, said.
The fall of communism in Eastern Europe, which began more than 20 years ago, along with better home insulation and more fuel-efficent automobiles, has reduced carbon emissions by 20 percent in the last 24 years.
An agreement developed at the current summit could allow nations to see actions taken by EU nations ahead of the talks in Paris.
In addition to environmental goals, EU negotiators in Brussels are also discussing tense relations between Russia and the Ukraine, as well as an outbreak of Ebola in western Africa and other nations.
