DEMRCHE RESPONSE: LATVIA SUPPORTS TOUGH EU

C O N F I D E N T I A L RIGA 000129 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/13/2018 TAGS: SENV ENRG EUN KGHG LG SUBJECT: DEMRCHE RESPONSE: LATVIA SUPPORTS TOUGH EU POSITION ON POST-KYOTO FRAMEWORK REF: STATE 24257 Classified By: Ambassador Charles W. Larson for Reason 1.4(d). ¶1. (C) PolEconOff delivered reftel points March 11 to Evita Stranga, Deputy Head of COREPER I Division of the EU Coordination Department at the MFA. Stranga responded that the GOL agrees that it is important to develop a post-Kyoto framework that involves all major emitters. The GOL also supports creating a funding mechanism to assist developing economies to deploy clean technologies in their economies. ¶2. (C) However, Stranga supported the EU push for a minus-20 target for Annex I parties by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. She noted that Latvia is currently 50 percent below 1990 GHG emission levels due to the collapse of Soviet industry in the country during the early 1990s. She added that Latvia would have to find a way to lower its emissions to 56 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to comply with the ambitious GHG cuts envisioned by the EU. Stranga concluded by stating, "developing countries are looking for leadership" on GHG, and developed countries must provide an "example and commitment." ¶3. (C) Comment: The GOL position on greenhouse gas issues varies considerably depending on which Latvian ministry Post engages. The economics ministry consistently states that EU targets for reduction of GHG are unrealistic and driven by the pandering of top-level politicians in Western Europe; the environmental ministry is pushing hard for the introduction of biofuels and other green means of energy production; the MFA is somewhere in between, but--at least on March 11--articulated support for ambitious cuts well below 1990 levels--a position more in line with Western European sensibilities. It remains an open question which of these perspectives will ultimately prevail in formulating Latvian GHG policy. End Comment. LARSON