Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-09-04-Speech-2-260"
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"en.20010904.10.2-260"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the Bonn Conference sent out three political messages of enormous importance. An environmental message, an economic message and one concerning governance. With regard to the environment, this Conference will go down in history as the one that brought to an end the talks and negotiations on climate change that had been dragging on for ten years and the one that enabled us finally to take action. It is true that the agreement is less ambitious that we had hoped and was drawn up mainly at the expense of concessions made in negotiations by the European Union. The alternative to this tiny step forwards, however, would have been incomparably worse. Without the political agreement that was achieved in Bonn, the Kyoto Protocol would be dead and we would have had to waste another ten years working on a global policy to mitigate the damage caused by climate change.
I should, therefore, like to congratulate Commissioner Wallström on her excellent role in the political handling of this dossier since her appointment, and I also congratulate her for the announcement she made today about presenting to this House the process of ratifying the Kyoto protocol, the practical measures on the emissions trading system and the European programme for climate change. I should also like to highlight the excellent cooperation maintained between the European Parliament delegation, the Commissioner for the Environment and the Council, through the Belgian Presidency, throughout the Conference.
The second message from Bonn is a change in the economic model: from a fire-based, fuel-using economy, to one which is coal-based. In this economy, a ton of coal has a set price and carbon dioxide emissions represent a cost that must be factored into the overall costs of all products and into the annual financial statements of all companies. We will therefore be seeing, in all economic sectors, a conversion to cleaner technologies. Obviously, the competitive advantages will go to those who convert the quickest. This is precisely where the mistake in President Bush’s calculation lies that is already beginning to concern North American businessmen, as we saw in Bonn: In the short term, Kyoto will cost less than was thought and will bring competitive advantages in the medium term.
The third message from Bonn concerns globalisation. Climate change has become more than an environmental dossier, it has become an issue that symbolises the environmental regulation of globalisation. The Bonn conference thereby demonstrated, for the first time, that those who have moved quickly and effectively to promote the advantages of globalisation are also able to act to minimise the harmful effects of that same globalisation. This is the great hope that was generated in Bonn: it is possible to find common solutions to global problems."@en1
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