European Parliament creates committee on climate change

MEPs on Wednesday voted in favour of setting up a new temporary committee on climate change.

The committee will have 60 members, still to be appointed, and a mandate of one year.

The committee's main objective will be to formulate proposals on the European Union's future integrated policy on climate change and to coordinate the European Parliament's position with a view to negotiating the international framework for climate policy after 2012, better known as the Kyoto Protocol.

The committee will also analyse and evaluate the application to date of relevant community legislation and hold hearings with the parliaments and governments of the member states.

Although this initiative was welcomed by the European Commission, the Greens in the Parliament yesterday accused fellow MEPs of hypocrisy as according to a new report commissioned by Green MEPs, the European Parliament's monthly commute from Brussels to Strasbourg generates 20,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

The survey, written by British academic John Whitelegg, assesses the energy cost of the monthly trek to Strasbourg by the 785 MEPs plus 3,000 parliament staff, assistants and translators, along with the energy costs of running the Strasbourg building.

The report concludes that keeping Parliament's second seat in Strasbourg produces 18,901 tonnes of CO2 per year - the equivalent of 13,000 transatlantic return flights or the entire CO2 emissions of a small island state.

Many EU officials have long insisted that the European Parliament should ditch the Strasbourg seat and use only Brussels. However this needs a change in the treaty and the agreement of all member states.

France has made it clear on various occasions that it doesn't intend bowing to pressure over this issue.