Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-28-Speech-3-255"
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"en.20071128.24.3-255"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we are grateful for the initiative of the Committee on International Trade in addressing issues relating to trade and climate change.
To conclude, let me thank you once again for this valuable contribution to the discussion on climate change at a very important time, when we are only days away from the start of the Bali Conference on climate change, which we hope will provide the motivation for negotiations on an international post-2012 agreement.
The report by Alain Lipietz is a useful source of policy ideas and proposals. We are pleased with this report, because it recognises the interconnectedness of the various aspects of the negotiations.
Climate change is a very serious issue which, essentially, affects all sectors, including trade. We must endeavour to define a mutually supportive and coherent policy. The European Union aims to facilitate trade, ensuring that it is viable and also that it contributes to other policies, such as the policy on climate change.
We welcome the fact that the report recognises the prospects for negotiation on environmental goods and services. We believe that this represents an important contribution by trade to the climate change targets. We hope to see progress on this issue during the current round of multilateral trade negotiations for the Doha Development Agenda. We are pleased about the recognition of the need for the environment agreement secretariats to acquire observer status at the World Trade Organisation, which is something we tried to achieve for the current round of trade negotiations. We are also pleased about the recognition of the contribution that can be made by our new free trade agreements to questions of climate change, through special provisions.
The links between opportunities for access to new markets, i.e. for increased trade flows, and policies on climate change, are obvious.
Environmental policies provide a strong incentive for technological innovation and promote economic performance. Scientific and economic data show very clearly that the benefits of containing climate change outweigh the cost of reduction policies.
The adoption of further measures to combat climate change may result in significant competitive advantages for producers in countries with restrictions on carbon emissions, because – in combination with other policies – it will lead to lower consumption of valuable resources, and to environmentally friendly technological innovation, for which the market access opportunities are increasing. In this way we shall arrive at a situation which benefits everyone, in terms both of competition and of the environment. We must continue to seek out further opportunities to strengthen the positive contribution made by trade policy towards combating climate change.
I note that the report includes in this context the issues of export credit, progressive elimination of trade subsidies with a negative impact on the climate, and the strengthening and broadening of market access for direct foreign investments. All these are interesting issues which we can discuss in greater detail.
We must also continue our efforts on sustainability criteria in relation to forestry products, deforestation and illegal tree felling."@en1
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