VZCZCXRO2640
RR RUEHAST RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD RUEHTM RUEHTRO
DE RUEHBS #0538 0981420
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 081420Z APR 09 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8826
INFO RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC

UNCLAS BRUSSELS 000538 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/PGI DAVID TESSLER AND OES ED FENDLEY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV BE
SUBJECT: BELGIUM:  ENCOURAGED BY USG CLIMATE CHANGE 
POSITION, BUT SEEKS MORE DATA 
 
Summary 
-------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Econoffs met March 26 with Mr. Geert Fremout and 
Mr. Peter Winnoeck of the Belgian Ministry of Environment and 
Health, to discuss the Bonn talks on global warming.  Econoff 
discussed many of the ten principles from Special Envoy on 
Climate Change (SECC) Todd Stern's March 3 speech at the U.S. 
Climate Action Symposium.  Fremout, who is heading Belgium's 
delegation to Bonn, was largely positive about the positions 
the SECC made in his speech, but said he would like to see 
the numbers behind the SECC's assertion in his speech that 
the United States could cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 
less than 25-40 percent by 2020 and then catch up to 80 
percent by taking a steeper path between 2020 and 2050.  Both 
Fremout and Winnoeck felt that if the United States cut its 
emissions less leading up to 2020, other countries and 
regions (including the European Union) would also cut their 
emissions less.  Fremout otherwise indicated that Belgium saw 
the Bonn meetings as being a useful stage of countries 
talking about their positions, and hoped there would be a 
focus on mitigation efforts. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Fremout and Winnoeck also asked whether the U.S. 
reductions were domestic only or also involved foreign 
offsets via flexible mechanisms.  They said they thought 
Belgium could reach 30 percent reduction by 2020, with 50 
percent of the reduction coming from flexible mechanism 
foreign offsets, but added they were under pressure by 
Belgian industry to do less domestically.  They asked whether 
the United States had estimates for costs imposed on industry 
to meet its 2020 emission reduction goals (at whatever level). 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  On China, Fremout asked whether the USG had any 
response to China's recent suggestion that importing 
countries bear the carbon cost of the products imported, not 
the producing countries.  Fremout said the European Union did 
not have an opinion so far, but noted that the Chinese 
suggestion runs counter to the long-standing understanding 
that a country was responsible for the emissions on its 
territory. 
 
BUSH 
 
 
 
 
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