Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-05-18-Speech-4-012"
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"en.20060518.4.4-012"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, previous speakers have mentioned the methodology used to draw up these three reports. I refer in particular to the visits that we made to the six countries affected by natural disasters and the public hearing that took place in Brussels. In our own countries too – at least this was the case in Portugal – we held public hearings to gather suggestions, information and proposals put forward by the various stakeholders. I should also like to thank the Members for their backing, their suggestions and their amendments, and the experts who helped improve my report.
The climate is changing. The year is no longer divided into the traditional four seasons. Days of unbroken drought alternate with days of torrential rain and with heat waves. Climate change lies at the root of the natural disasters – be they floods, extreme droughts or fires – that have been occurring with increasing frequency throughout the world and have caused terrible damage in terms of human loss, environmental deterioration and reduced economic activity.
This is one of the major problems of our times. 2005 began with the world in shock at the scale of the tragedy caused by the Asian tsunami. The process of identifying the dead and looking for survivors went on for a number of months. In the summer of that year, a series of fires destroyed hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest in Portugal, France and Spain, and violent floods spread devastation and death in countries such as Germany and Austria. Outside Europe, Hurricane Katrina wreaked unprecedented destruction in a number of North American States, and before the year was out, Afghanistan was hit by a violent earthquake.
In addition to earthquakes, seaquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, floods and fires, there are other phenomena associated with climate change and global warming that cause sea levels in coastal areas to rise and beaches to disappear. Studies published in
magazine reveal that sea levels could rise six metres by 2100, given that the ice of the Arctic and Antarctic is melting increasingly quickly. In order to prevent the worst case scenario, serious measures must immediately be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to honour the commitments of the Kyoto Protocol.
Commissioner, you referred to the water shortage. Indeed, water must also be used more sustainably, more sensibly and more efficiently. More than 1 billion people fight for survival every day because they do not have drinking water, 400 million of whom are children. Water-related diseases kill a child every 15 seconds and are linked to many other diseases and malnutrition. The distribution of resources between the different domestic, industrial and agricultural users needs to be studied and debated, and waste must be combated.
It is crucial to encourage the citizens to help prevent these disasters, by reducing greenhouse emissions, as I have said before, by protecting the forests and by not building in high-risk areas. Natural disasters cut across borders and their environmental consequences also affect neighbouring countries. Given that Community action should complement that of the national authorities, in terms of prevention, planning and intervention, rehabilitation and follow-up, it is essential to step up coordination at all levels, to improve the existing mechanisms and to develop early warning systems.
Although each region has its own characteristics and each case is different, there are common needs to be addressed, such as defining risk assessment mechanisms and drawing up maps of areas of drought, forest fires and floods. My report contains a number of other proposals, which I naturally hope will be endorsed, first and foremost, by Parliament, the Commission and the Council, examples of which include the definition of prevention systems to facilitate the fight against the causes of natural disasters; improved urban planning, especially in coastal areas and high-risk areas; the preservation of natural ecosystems; increased cooperation on civil protection between the Member States and at EU level in order to ensure the availability of additional resources for rapid action to address emergency situations; and the simplification of the rules on implementing the instruments, such as the Solidarity Fund and the Forest Focus Programme."@en1
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