Dr Ian Duncan, Conservative MEP for Scotland, has given his reaction to the COP21 Climate Change negotiating text.
Next year, Ian will rewrite the European Union's flagship policy to tackle Climate Change, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and has been representing the European Parliament and Scotland at the Climate Change talks in Paris
The new negotiating text has been slimmed down from 38 to 29 pages, with obstacles such as the square bracket ‘options’ cut down by 75%. However, despite this progress the main issues of differentiation, finance, and ambition remain unresolved.
Dr Duncan said:
“It's round one to China. The world's number one emitter and second largest economy has managed to negotiate its way out of having to pay any money to those nations suffering the consequences of Climate Change.”
He added:
“It may be positive to see that three quarters of the issues in the negotiating text have been solved, but there is still a long way to go and only two more days in which to get there.”