European council must show green ambition

Posted by Bronwen Maher on March 24, 2010 at 08:44 PM

Speaking today in the European Parliament today ahead of tomorrow's European Council meeting Nessa Childers said: "EU leaders must push for significant improvements of the so-called Europe 2020 Strategy if it is to really lead towards a truly sustainable and successful economy. It is simply not ambitious enough as regards emissions targets, biodiversity and green jobs.

"While the Strategy focuses on the EU economy, it must be coherent with other EU policies. To make real progress towards a sustainable economy and sustainable environment the EU needs to set clear targets for reducing energy and resource use, and substantially increase the ambitions for fighting climate change. The strategy for example is very weak on the issue of biodiversity, an area where Europe is already failing badly.

"We must prioritise investment in a truly transformative agenda which would deliver new industrial policies and an economy based on less carbon, less energy and resource use, and with more and better jobs and services contributing to sustainable development. I do not feel the Council has yet had the complete mindset change to lead us into a truly low-carbon future. The jobs and wealth of the future will be in the low-carbon sectors. That is where Europe must focus.

"The Council will also look at the follow-up to the United Nations' conference on climate change in Copenhagen last December, which I as a member of the Environment Committee attended. I urge the Council to move now to a 30% reduction target in emissions.

"Such a move would not only help negotiations ahead of the next meeting in Mexico but such ambition would also help transform the European economy, providing new opportunities for green-tech businesses and creating thousands of green, sustainable jobs as we move to a low-carbon future. A target of 30% is now warranted, viable and achievable. The goalposts have shifted somewhat as the recession has led to a significant fall in global emissions since the EU’s position of 20% was first drawn up in 2007. Much of the reductions claimed today by  European business were actually a result of offsetting via the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism and are not domestic reductions. The European Emissions Trading System has also been a great disappointment thus far, not driving the reduction in emissions we need. The carbon price is simply too low and many large companies have actually made huge windfall profits from it. We need a higher European target emissions cut target now.

“There is a clear economic win-win involved in pursuing higher targets. I urge the European Council tomorrow to show far more ambitious, to integrate the economic and environmental agendas and again start to lead on this issue.”

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