EU WILL PRESS DEVELOPING NATIONS ON CLIMATE CHANGE; HOW AND

UNCLAS RIGA 000481 SIPDIS DEPT FOR WENDY MOORE (OES/EGC),MATTHEW BEH (EUR),SUSAN PARKER-BURNS (EUR) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KGHG SENV ENRG TRGY EUN LG SUBJECT: EU WILL PRESS DEVELOPING NATIONS ON CLIMATE CHANGE; HOW AND TO WHAT EXTENT IS UNCLEAR REF: SECSTATE 97542 ¶1. (U) Latvia believes that the EU will press developing nations to make international commitments at climate change negotiations but shared no details as to how that will be done. Pol/Econ Off delivered reftel demarche to Valdis Bisters, Director of the MOE's Climate and Renewable Energy Department, and Mara Rone, Head of the MOE's EU and International Cooperation Division. Bisters agreed with the USG strategy of pressing major developing nations to commit to measurable and verifiable actions. However, Bisters and Rone were politely skeptical that U.S. emission reduction targets are comparable to EU targets and were unsure of how to compare the USG reduction accounting methodology to the EU methodology.