Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-24-Speech-2-085"
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"en.20091124.3.2-085"2
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"Madam President, I would genuinely like to thank Parliament for a long and intensive debate and also for the strong and broad commitment that has become apparent during the debate. It has been said that the optimism that we are showing must be rooted in realism. However, I would go further than that and say that it is, in fact, rooted in real experiences. The EU has succeeded in reducing emissions. We have reduced them by half of what we need to achieve, whatever happens, by 2020 and by a third if we aim for what we all hope will be the outcome of the Copenhagen agreement, which is to say, a 30% reduction in emissions on the EU’s part. This is due, in particular, to the fact that we have created common rules established by an internationally binding agreement – the Kyoto Protocol. That is why we have been so strongly committed to ensuring that the Copenhagen process leads to this legally binding agreement. It will not happen straight away in Copenhagen. We will need to agree on all of the content of the agreement. Then we will have the technical part, which includes transferring this to a legally binding text. As far as the EU is concerned, we want this to happen within months of the Copenhagen conference.
I would also like to say that the financial crisis throughout the world certainly had nothing to do with too much being spent on saving the climate. On the contrary, large green investments are also part of the economic changes, in other words, the move towards a ‘greener’ economy, which will also lead countries, both rich and poor, out of the economic crisis. The carbon dioxide markets in fact provide a way of creating sufficient room for investment. They ensure that the polluter has to pay, that we set a ceiling on emissions and that the money that the polluter pays for emissions can also be transferred to developing countries to make green investments there. That is sometimes called into question. Some people wonder why we should invest in the clean development mechanism (CDM), but that is nevertheless precisely what it is all about, namely that the polluter must pay for green investments in developing countries. I think that is a good thing and it is important, but we must also reform these rules so that the environmental effects are even greater and clearer and so that we can be even more certain that this also reaches those who are poorest.
An agreement will also be needed in order to avoid carbon leakage. The concern that there has been must therefore be transformed into even greater commitment to making the agreement a reality.
Finally, I think that it should be said loud and clear that if an agreement in Copenhagen is not sufficient to allow the EU to go up to 30%, in other words, if we get such a watered-down result that the EU, for reasons of propriety, quite simply cannot go up to 30%, then it will have been a failure. Therefore, it should also be said loud and clear that there is something worse than no agreement and that is a poor agreement. That is why the EU has set the bar so high. That is why we are working so hard right now with regard to the content. It is also because, when we talk about the two degree target, we are conscious of the fact that it is the highest level we need to achieve. We know that we are, in fact, already seeing unacceptable results today. Talk to the government of the Maldives, for example, that recently held its cabinet meeting under water to show the consequences that will be very nearly unavoidable in some parts of the world. It would be cynical, then, not to take very forceful action. The world has waited long enough. It is time that we reached the necessary agreement in Copenhagen for the sake of the planet. That is also why Parliament’s commitment and that of the whole of the EU is so important."@en1
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