EU's Dimas predicts EU climate deal this week

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By Gerard Wynn and Gabriela Baczynska

POZNAN, Poland (Reuters) - The European Union's Environment Commissioner, Stavros Dimas, was confident on Wednesday the bloc will resolve disputes and agree an EU climate package at a summit this week.

The stumbling block was how many carbon emissions industry must pay for and not an overall limit on greenhouse gases produced from burning fossil fuels like coal, Dimas stressed.

"We are going to have an agreement," he told reporters on the sidelines of U.N.-led global climate talks in Poznan, western Poland.

"I can assure you that the reductions targets, 20 percent by 2020 and the other targets that we have set in renewables, will be intact," he added, referring to a goal to slash greenhouse gases by at least a fifth by 2020.

EU leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday to try to clinch a deal on the new climate goals, as Germany, Italy and new eastern member states seek concessions to protect manufacturers and power generators.

Poland and eight other new EU members say that forcing coal plants to pay for all carbon emissions will hurt their economies and people.

Under the original proposals all power plants would pay for every ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted after 2012, under the bloc's emissions trading scheme (ETS).

Germany says its heavy industry could become less competitive internationally if Berlin accepts similar rules for manufacturers. But Dimas said that he could not imagine failing to reach an agreement in Brussels.

"It is inconceivable that EU leaders would fail to reach an agreement on outstanding parts of the climate package."

Companies may have to pay for fewer emissions permits than originally planned but that would still generate enough money for EU treasuries to fund the climate change fight, he added.

Such funding would be welcomed in the U.N. climate talks.

Representatives from some 190 countries are meeting in Poland to push talks aimed at clinching agreement on a new climate pact by the end of next year, to replace the Kyoto Protocol after 2012.

CONCESSION

France's Nicolas Sarkozy, the holder of EU's rotating presidency, failed at the weekend to convince Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic into accepting the climate and energy deal.

Despite new concessions extending a period when their coal plants get free permits, these countries have done no more than express positive expectations about the summit.

"The latest proposals, I think, are going in a very good direction. We'll see if they are sufficient," Poland's Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki told a news conference.

"I have a great hope that the summit will take decisions that will be good for Poland and the rest of the countries," added Nowicki, who chairs the two-week climate talks in Poznan.

Dimas did not rule out allowing companies to meet their emissions limits under the EU ETS from funding forest conservation in developing countries if there were a new climate treaty after 2012, but added he was "personally" opposed.

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