Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-16-Speech-1-166"
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".
Mr President, thank you for giving me the opportunity to debate with you the results of the successful conference on climate change held in Montreal in December.
It also includes specific tasks to design adaptation and the application of adaptation measures. The Adaptation Fund will finance adaptation activities. Its funds will come from contributions to the Clean Development Mechanism which will probably start to be paid in 2008.
Thirdly, the Montreal Conference went further, making the Kyoto Protocol a stronger and more effective system. The Clean Development Mechanism was strengthened. The executive and supervisory role of the CDM Executive Board was made more transparent and stronger. The secretariat will hire more staff, in order to improve the services which it provides to the Executive Board and its committees.
The parties also pledged a sum of money to the operation of the Clean Development Mechanism. Most of this money will constitute the contribution by the European Union.
The joint implementation bodies were also set up. The preparatory work carried out on the Clean Development Mechanism can also be used for the approval of the joint implementation tasks. This means that it is possible to speed up the approval of the joint implementation tasks for which plans have already been drawn up. The European Union also pledged a sum of money in order to strengthen the committee supervising the joint implementation mechanism.
Finally, the European Union used the Montreal Conference to demonstrate its significant progress in the application of the Kyoto Protocol. The numerous positive reactions which I received reinforce my conviction that the response of the European Union to the climate challenge may not only also be the most effective from the economic point of view, but may also offer a competitive edge to European businesses. The acute interest in the emission rights trading system which we have introduced makes it clear that we are an example worth following.
The European Union has acquired a leading position internationally in combating climate change. It continued to support the Kyoto Protocol when serious doubts overshadowed the beginning of its entry into force. Nonetheless, we must always be conscious of the fact that greater efforts are needed within the Union. Most of the Member States need to apply additional measures in order to achieve the Kyoto objectives.
New joint measures will also be needed at European Union level. The current second stage of the European programme on climate change will help to determine the optimum measures.
I should also like to touch on the question of dialogue within the European Union on climate change. I believe that the agreement to launch an international dialogue achieved in Montreal is an important stimulus for the European Union.
The strategy of the European Union seeking to supplement the process at the United Nations with bilateral commitments and to focus on confidence building and on including the views of the other parties has proven to be successful. The Montreal conference ratified this approach.
The European Union now needs to cooperate with all sides, especially those with a large share of emissions, such as the United States, and the countries with emerging economies, in a constructive dialogue on broadening participation in the future international regime in the climate change sector.
In Montreal, apart from the 11th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, we also had the first meeting of the parties which have ratified the Kyoto Protocol.
I consider that Montreal marked a new phase in international cooperation to combat climate change. The period of inquiry is over. We now have an international system with all the necessary mechanisms. Consequently, our efforts are focusing on consolidating it and on safeguarding its functioning.
However, we cannot rest on our laurels. Climate change requires urgent action and concerns us all. Drastic cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases will be needed if we are to stabilise and then reduce concentrations of these gases in our planet's atmosphere.
That is why, this year, in the second phase of the European programme on climate change, we shall discuss new initiatives in a bid to strengthen our climate policy. This second European programme on climate change will include an extensive review of the policies of the first stage in the climate sector, which includes the European Union emission rights trading system, action on capturing and storing carbon dioxide, air and other forms of transport and other issues.
On the basis of this review, I shall propose new initiatives to strengthen our climate policy, depending on the results of this process of consultation with the interested parties. I know that I can count on support in this task from the European Parliament.
I was particularly delighted by the presence and positive action of the ten Members of the European Parliament at the Montreal conference. It underlines the importance which both our institutions ascribe to meeting the challenge of climate change and to the role of the multilateral procedure in the course of doing so. Our constant contacts and cooperation in Montreal bore fruit. It is therefore important that we also continue this practice at future conferences.
The outcome of the Montreal conference is an important milestone for multilateral negotiations on climate. The Kyoto Protocol has now been put into full operation, while the agreement on the Montreal action plan paves the way for discussion of future international cooperation on climate change issues. This will safeguard, among other things, greater security for the European carbon dioxide emissions market and for the private sector.
The enumeration of the political achievements at Montreal is truly impressive. Firstly, we agreed to launch two official dialogues on the subject of the future regime for addressing climate change. All the parties which have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, including the United States and Australia and, of course, all the major developing countries, are included in the Convention dialogue.
A thorough, forward-looking dialogue will be held on the basis of the Convention, in the form of four workshops to be held over the next two years. The results of the dialogue will be presented at the Conference of Parties in 2007.
The Kyoto dialogue will be used to discuss further emission reductions by developing countries on the basis of the Kyoto Protocol for the period after 2012. A special ad hoc United Nations working group has been set up within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol. This party will complete its work as quickly as possible and in time to ensure that there is no gap between the first and second Kyoto commitment period.
Secondly, all the necessary decisions were taken in Montreal for the full functioning of the Kyoto Protocol as follows: the operating rules of the Kyoto Protocol, known as the Marrakech Accords, were approved in their entirety.
The compliance decision makes the Kyoto Protocol binding for all parties and makes provision for a Compliance Committee to be set up. The five-year adaptation work programme contains a full set of activities, including work designed to further enhance our knowledge of the impacts of and the problems caused by climate change."@en1
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