Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2015-04-28-Speech-2-012-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20150428.4.2-012-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, I would also like to extend my thanks to the rapporteur Mr Torvalds for his work in what has often been quite difficult circumstances. We got here in the end, we got a compromise, and I am very grateful to him for all his work.
I think it is very important that we take a moment to consider why we are having this debate and why this issue has been such an area of contention, because we have for many years now seen the effects of particularly bad policy from the European Union when it comes to biofuels. I have seen some of these effects for myself in my previous role working for an NGO in areas of the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where communities have been suffering from some pretty bad effects of the policies that we have been adopting here. In particular: the proliferation of crops for biofuel production for fuel consumption there on land that could and should be used for food production; the betrayal of some local communities whose livelihoods have depended on that land; and of course the unintended consequences of indirect land use change that have resulted from the replacement of ecosystems that would actually have contributed to solving the problem of climate change.
The package that we have now is imperfect and I make no bones about the fact that we have serious reservations, certainly about the target for first-generation production which, as we know, we wanted to be much lower. I think this package certainly reflects the intransigence of Member States, and that has been particularly apparent in the position adopted by the Council when it came to the negotiation process – and also reflects a lack of ambition, if I may say so, from the Commission. However, this is a step forward and we should acknowledge the significance of this, because the impasse that we have had for so long now has not been beneficial for the communities that I have mentioned. It has not been beneficial for the industries that have, with the very best of intentions, set us down this path on the investments that they made so many years ago.
I think that in this package we are choosing, at last, to recognise the existence of indirect land use change and we are giving the Commission the platform to enable itself to apply the science that the blockers have for so long denied.
There are some in this Chamber who would deny some of the bad impacts of biofuels that I have mentioned, and there are others that might choose to play politics and score points on this deal. I think this deal represents a step forward, imperfect as it is, and that is why I shall be supporting it."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples