Interviewee: Eivind Hoff, Bellona Europa

Chris Slatter: Now during the debate that we've just heard, you were concerned that while we may bring in mechanisms in Europe to adopt CCS, that countries like India and China, there was no mechanism to make them do it. Would you expand further on that?

Eivind Hoff: Well, what I wanted to say is that it is crucial that the EU helps India and China to get demonstration plants, and when the Commissioner is saying that the Chinese are telling the EU that you guys do it in the EU first, well, then it means that the EU is not doing what we want, which is to put money on the table. Because, of course, the Chinese would like to see this new technology as soon as possible in their own country, but they have a massive developmental challenge and therefore don't have the necessary funds necessarily that we in Europe have to cater for or to deal with climate change.

Chris Slatter: So what would you suggest as a mechanism to make this issue global? Or certainly make the adoption of CCS global? What mechanism would you suggest?

Eivind Hoff: Well, I think that the EU has a budget - a budget which should be spent increasingly on adapting to and mitigating climate change. And a chunk of that should be dedicated to actions abroad because that it is in developing countries that, first of all, the damage of climate change will be felt the most and it is also in developing countries where it is the most urgent to curb emissions, in the sense that they are today developing, they're building their power plants as we've heard during the debate, they're building their power plants - once or twice a week we get a new coal fired power plant in China. So that's why it's so important that we curb, that we get the new Chinese power plants equipped with CCS as soon as possible.

Chris Slatter: This implies giving China a lot of technology and possibly a lot of money. That's a fairly unpalatable measure to be introduced into the European Parliament. What would you say to that?

Eivind Hoff: Well, this is about EU leadership. The EU has said, has committed to take responsibility for its historical emissions and the fact that it's our emissions in the past that today are wreaking havoc in poor countries. So this is about historical responsibility and it's about the EU living up to its own high moral standards. This is not about sacrificing EU welfare states etc. This is we're talking relatively small money, but it will send a powerful message to developing countries like China that the EU is serious about pursuing climate change policies, not only when it benefits the EU itself.