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Almost immediately upon the July 1, 2004 rotation of the European Commission presidency to the Netherlands, Pieter Van Geel, Dutch Secretary of State for the Environment, announced the country's intention to use the opportunity to direct the European Union (EU) to establish further reductions in international greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Van Geel proposes a goal of decreasing global GHG emissions to 30 percent below 1990 baseline levels by 2020. The current EU obligation under both EU policy and the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty to reduce GHG emissions from developed nations, requires cutting GHG emissions to a cumulative 8 percent below 1990 baseline levels during the 2008 to 2012 "commitment period.