Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-26-Speech-3-033"
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"en.20060426.9.3-033"2
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".
Mr President, at 1.23 a.m. on 26 April 1986 an alarm sounded that signalled the world’s worst ever civil nuclear accident.
Lenin believed that progress could be achieved only through socialism and electricity. History has judged him wrong on the first count but perhaps not on the second. Nobody denies that we need a sustainable and secure energy supply; they disagree only on the mix.
The anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster is a reminder of the challenges we face in delivering our energy requirements while minimising the risks. We owe it to the victims of Chernobyl to develop safe, reliable and sustainable sources of energy.
The explosion at the Chernobyl power plant spewed radioactive waste over vast swathes of the former USSR and Western Europe, and rendered an area with a radius of 30 km uninhabitable to humankind. It is fitting that we express today our solidarity with the victims of that accident and that we recognise the serious impact that it had on so many lives.
Official UN figures predicted up to 9 000 cancer-related deaths as a result of that accident. However, a Greenpeace report released last week estimated 93 000, which could rise to around 200 000 if we include other related illnesses.
I want to speak, however, of the future, not of the past. Chernobyl remains a symbol of the perils of nuclear fuel and the reason why we must work with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe that have nuclear reactors based on the same design, to render those as safe as possible while they must function, and take them out of commission as soon as we can.
I particularly welcome the Commissioner’s commitment to the development of renewable technologies. The Commissioner will shortly be visiting my constituency, where we are closing nuclear power plants and developing renewable fuels. With finite resources fast depleting, Europe will have to radically re-examine its patterns of energy supply and consumption.
This is especially true at a time of chronic instability in the Middle East, of alarming hikes in the price of crude oil, and increased competition for resources. If we are to avoid being 90% dependent on Russian oil by 2020, we have to achieve greater autonomy in energy supply and develop a common energy policy with an intelligent, balanced energy mix. Money invested in clean green technology is not money wasted and if Europe can lead the world in researching green technologies it will create more jobs, revive manufacturing, and generate greater export potential for our products.
That is why my Group applauds the Council and the Austrian Presidency for backing plans to double the use of biomass, including organic waste, for energy purposes, allowing us to cut energy imports by over 6% and bring up to 300 000 jobs to rural areas
With overall consumption rising, greater energy efficiency combined with the renewables could generate around 25% of our needs. We have got to increase that figure, we have got to make a genuine commitment to investment in technologies for the future. Investing in projects such as hydrogen fuel might have the potential to achieve oil savings equivalent to 13% of global oil demand.
Given the substantial contribution that nuclear power already makes to our energy autonomy, there must be renewed momentum to invest in safety, both to ensure that nuclear power stations produce less waste and present less risk and to develop Europe’s research into fusion energy through the Euratom framework and the experiment in Cadarache in France."@en1
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