EU Parliament: Durban Summit Should Set `Peak Year’ for Greenhouse Gas Emissions

BRUSSELS—Climate negotiators at the upcoming U.N. summit in Durban, South Africa, should agree on a “peak year” after which global greenhouse gas emissions will not be permitted to rise, European Parliament lawmakers said in a resolution approved Nov. 16.

Voting 532-76 with 43 abstentions, the lawmakers said the peak should be reached “as soon as possible” but noted that the most recent assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was published in 2007, said that emissions should not rise after 2015.

Jo Leinen, a German socialist lawmaker who chairs the European Parliament’s Environment Committee, said international climate ...