Spain's Minister of the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs, Elena Espinosa, will be chairing the Environment Council in Brussels Today, which will be focusing as a matter of priority on proposed standards for new light commercial vehicles with the aim of reducing their CO2 emissions, and assessing the Copenhagen summit follow-up document.

As with the regulation on CO2 emissions from cars, the objective is for reductions of emissions from light commercial vehicles to start to take effect progressively from 2014. The proposed CO2 emissions regulations for these vehicles are seen as of crucial importance in the context of reducing greenhouse gases from sectors that, to date, have not been covered by EU emissions rules.

Other important agenda items for the Council meeting include evaluating the Copenhagen summit follow-up document, produced by the European Commission at the request of the Ministry of the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs, and adopting conclusions on biodiversity goals beyond 2010.

The Ministry of the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs has invited the Mexican Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources and incoming chairman of the Climate Conference in Cancun, Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada, to take part in the talks on climate change at this Council meeting.  He is expected to exchange views with European delegates about developments in international negotiations on the future framework to be used in the battle against climate change.

Some of the Council's other goals are to exchange opinions on how the environmental sector can make the most of the opportunities arising from the European growth and employment strategy, as well as to analyse a report weighing up the possibility of establishing synergies between the Hong Kong Convention, the Basel Convention and EU regulations on the movement of waste.

Source; EU 2010