Strategic issues - EU

The European Commission is planning to build a new alliance on climate change between the European Union and the developing countries that are most affected by it and have the least capacity to deal with it. An critical pillar of the action is the Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA) and will concentrate on implementing concrete adaptation measures, reducing emissions from de-forestation, helping poor countries take advantage of the global carbon market, helping poor countries to prepare better for natural disasters and integrating climate change into development cooperation and poverty reduction measure. The Council has since taken some measures and steps to tackle he global initiative, such as creating a legislation that would extend the emissions trading system to aviation emissions, helping small and medium-sized enterprises use energy and resources efficiently, imposing legal action against violating member states, conducting an environmental impact assessment and upstaging urban wastewater treatment.