Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-03-15-Speech-4-013-000"
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"en.20120315.6.4-013-000"2
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"Mr President, last week I was in my constituency in the City of Carlisle, standing on a muddy patch of ground where a new supermarket is being built, watching a drilling machine digging holes in the ground to about a 60-metre depth down which cold water will be pumped and from which warmer water will emerge, providing the heating system for the new supermarket. This ground source heat pump system will save the developers about GBP 100 000 a year and have a payback of eight years at most, possibly less.
If these are the steps we have to take to develop a low-carbon economy – drilling a few holes in the ground – it does not seem that difficult to me. But there are two lessons to be learned from this. The first is that the financial mechanism alone should have encouraged supermarket developers and the like to invest in simple technology of this kind, but often it takes regulation to make it: financial mechanisms alone have not stimulated the market sufficiently. Secondly, it takes time. One building here, one building there will not make much difference. But every large building constructed over the next 40 years will make a difference.
Endorsement of the Commission’s Roadmap for a competitive low-carbon economy by 2050 provides the framework for measures to enable us to reduce our emissions of carbon dioxide by more than 80% over the next few decades. Because I, together with this House, believe that global warming presents a threat to billions on this planet in the coming decades, that is something important to us all. But I accept what the Polish Environment Minister said in his letter to colleagues at the Environment Council last week. He had some good arguments, saying, for example, that Europe, with only 12% of the world’s emissions, cannot solve the problems of the world. Of course that is correct. It does not mean to say that we cannot take a lead. He also said that we must be careful not to lose industry, and that is also correct: we do not want to lose jobs overseas as a result of the measures we take to deal with climate change.
But let us not exaggerate this; let us not pretend that we have lost most of these jobs because of climate change measures – they have gone because of many, many other reasons, not because of the emissions trading system or anything like it. What was really missing from the argument put forward by the Polish Minister was that the dynamics of the process of actually setting targets and introducing the appropriate regulations can drive forward innovation.
Look at the car industry: look at how, when we passed legislation just three years ago, it was bitterly resisted by industry – and yet they far exceeded the CO
reduction targets we set. They have done a brilliant job and not simply reduced their emissions but made their vehicles more fuel-efficient so that they are cheaper to drive, with consumers thereby getting a better deal. That really is a win-win situation for Europe and for our industry. Frankly, if the arguments of the Polish Environment Minister had been applied, we would not have got to that situation now.
I believe that the Roadmap can stimulate technology and give greater certainty for investors. Do people in Poland really think that if they are building a coal-fired power station now, with a lifetime of 30 or 40 years, we will not be insisting that our measures be enforced over that period to reduce its CO
emissions? I cannot see it. It is important that we plan for the future. We must not condemn Europe to relative decline. We have got to look not to the past but to the future.
Commissioner, I hope Parliament today will endorse the Roadmap; I hope you will embrace many of the ideas put forward in it by my colleagues here, and I hope you will then bring forward measures to promote innovation, create jobs and take Europe forward."@en1
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