Greens say EU not doing enough on climate change

The European Green Party council, which is meeting this weekend at the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, in Berlin, yesterday focused on climate change and approved a resolution which accuses the EU heads of state and government of undermining efforts to combat climate change.

"The conclusions of the European Council... are not enough to save the climate," the resolution stated.

Although the heads of state and government acknowledged that climate change was a crucial challenge, both the 2020 unilateral commitment to reduce emissions in the EU27 and the package of weak measures in response failed to offer a credible solution to this threat.

"There is a huge gap between the aim of the EU to take a leading role in climate protection issues and the measures it proposes. Other energy-related problems, such as weaker international security and increasing instability, the scarcity of resources... are inadequately tackled or even ignored by our governments."

However, the resolution welcomed the fact that renewables were upgraded to become the main supply option to tackle the energy and climate crisis and that the attempts of the nuclear lobby were defeated.

It proposed the creation - under the German Presidency - of a European pact for climate and energy to bring the EU and member states back on track to meet the Kyoto Protocol targets, create the necessary platform for EU leadership in the post-2012 negotiations and combine these policies with the security of supply dimension.

The resolution of the EPG, in which Malta is represented by Alternattiva Demokratika, urged member states to agree on the pact the aims of which would include the swift implementation of measures limiting the average global temperature increase to 2°C above pre-industrialisation level.

Another aim was to adopt domestic reduction targets for the greenhouse gases emissions of at least 30 per cent by 2010 and at least 80 per cent by 2050 compared to the 1990 level and to give absolute priority to energy savings adopting a binding target of at least 20 to 25 per cent of primary energy savings by 2010.

The pact would call on the EU to address in its strategy the transport sector, which was 96 per cent dependent on oil and responsible for 30 per cent of EU emissions and to set binding targets on renewables to achieve a 35 per cent quota of renewables in primary energy by 2020.

It would also call on the EU to recognise that nuclear energy could not solve the global climate change and phase out nuclear plants.

The resolution said the Greens were convinced Europe would only be able to fulfil its promise of leadership on climate policy if it set for itself tougher 2020 domestic greenhouse gases targets of at least 30 per cent reduction compared to the 1990 levels.

"Europe has to focus its efforts on improving energy efficiency and savings and promoting renewables instead of relying on nuclear energy and fossil fuels."

AD chairman Harry Vassallo, who chaired the debate, said the resolution would provide the possibility of a great leap forward in the sector.

In the council's morning session, Reinhard Bütikofer, co-president of the German Greens, spoke on the need to forge new alliances and translate the media debate on climate change into a civic movement for reform.

The climate issue, he said, was international and it would be stupid to approach it just on a national level. "We have to shape Europe if we want to have an impact on how the world tackles this issue," he said.

The European Council's climate goals, he said, were not the most ambitious ones. But were they going to be translated into national goals and actions? What was going to happen? Pressure needed to be put on institutions and players.

Mr Bütikofer asked if industry, business and governments could be forced to create a framework within which climate-friendly lifestyles were possible for everyone. Greens, he said, challenged all, benefited all and wanted to include all.

They dealt with the issue when it was not a popular one. Now that it had become a majority issue, they had to open up, listen and find new ways to include people getting majority support for their policies.

Presenting the Green alternative scenario, Green MEP Claude Turmes said this was based on reducing the demand for gas while increasing the use of renewables.

The climate crisis, he said, was only the tip of the iceberg of a broader crisis as there would result in a huge stress on the economy.

The role of the EU in a resource-constrained world was to:

• develop a new economic model which created a high quality of life within the ecological footprint;

• establish a rules-based international system; and

• have yardsticks for an energy policy in this field.

Action had to be taken in transport and in households, among others. If electricity use in households continued to rise, he warned, it would be practically impossible to have a sustainable electricity production in Europe.

Stressing a need for the use of renewables, Mr Turmes pointed out that these were not nuclear but a diversity of fuels that could bring hope to the world. However, this would not happen without strong European instruments, such as a new electricity directive and a new directive for heating and cooling.

To win this battle, he said, the Greens needed yes, rather than no strategies. They need to make alliances with progressive industry, and expose polluting business.

At the beginning of yesterday's session, the EGP agreed to set up four working groups to draw up common Green political positions on climate change and energy policies; immigration; the economy; and social policy.

While some of the papers, such as that on climate change, would be used for the 2009 EP elections, others, such as that on immigration, may not.