Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-04-10-Speech-4-010"
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"en.20080410.4.4-010"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I have no doubt whatsoever that it is vital for the European Parliament finally to take a thorough look at the issue of adapting to climate change, the scale of which we have in truth underestimated until now. The Commission's Green Paper has therefore given us a valuable opportunity to examine this subject.
Thank you, Commissioner. I hope you will tell us how work is progressing on the preparation of the White Paper, after the consultation held on the Green Paper.
As everyone now knows, we are engaged in a very tough battle to do our best to mitigate global warming, and we are discussing a legislative package which should enable us to take a major step towards this goal. We are nevertheless aware that the effects of climate change are already being felt in many parts of the world, especially in the poorest areas as well as in large parts of our own continent and the European Union. It is therefore necessary to react by developing an appropriate policy which goes in the right direction without conflicting with the primary goal of, I repeat, reducing emissions and mitigating global warming.
I believe some very significant progress was made in Bali from this point of view, given that it was decided to provide finance for the Global Environment Fund, specifically earmarking a share of the CDM to financing adaptation projects in developing countries. I have also read, if I am not mistaken, that the programme of work drawn up last week in Bangkok to follow on from Bali – Bangkok being the first major meeting since Bali – has scheduled another meeting in Bonn this June to focus specifically on the subject of adaptation.
The reason why I have singled out this aspect, the international dimension, is that it seemed to me, when drafting the resolution adopted in the CLIM Committee and now being put before this House for its appraisal, that international cooperation was the top priority. The European Union must set about developing cooperation and financial, technical and scientific collaboration with the countries most in need of help, countries less well-equipped to confront the sometimes devastating effects of global warming. We need only think of the Pacific islands: we held a hearing which was attended by representatives from some of those countries, and they explained to us how precarious their situation already is now.
Another priority is of course to strike a careful balance so as to preserve a dynamic link between mitigation and adaptation.
The third priority is to stimulate research and experimentation. There is still insufficient know-how, given the extreme diversity of territorial situations, to properly gauge the likely effects of global warming; hence it is difficult to devise long-term policies to adapt to and prevent the most worrying developments.
The key point over the next few years will of course be dovetailing these policies with others, which calls for political resolve on the part of all players at all levels. We have emphasised in particular the rethink that is needed in order to factor climate change into our cohesion policies, a rethink that must begin with the adaptation of agricultural policies and, more generally, land management policies. On this point I think we should back the amendment that has been tabled, calling on the Council to adopt a common position on the soil protection directive at long last.
Finally - I think I am still within the five minutes, Mr President - I also believe it is very important to find the right balance, as it were, between European policies and action at local level. The principle of subsidiarity must be interpreted dynamically and not in a bureaucratic fashion.
The extreme diversity of situations in Europe means that no single policy can be drawn up. We have the southern areas of Europe, of course, and also the Alpine belt, where the effects are very different and very significant. The various committees must therefore establish a very close one-to-one relationship with regional authorities. I am thinking of large-scale regional bodies such as the Alpine Convention and the Carpathian Convention, which are developing some very worthwhile initiatives and can be used as a model for international cooperation."@en1
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