Brussels, 27/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's environment committee has laid the foundations for a resource-efficient Europe, says the environmental NGO, Friends of the Earth Europe (FoE), welcoming the adoption, on Wednesday 25 April, of the report by Gerban-Jan Gerbrandy (see EUROPE 10602). MEPs have voted overwhelmingly in favour of indicators to measure Europe's use of water, land, materials and carbon. This demonstrates the need to move away from the European Commission's current ineffective resource productivity indicator, which lacks transparency and is not fit for purpose, states FoE.
“This is a very strong signal from the European Parliament that Europe is ready to embrace the significant environmental and economic benefits that resource efficiency brings. Europe can no longer remain passive about its overconsumption of natural resources, nor can it ignore the negative environmental, social and economic impact of overconsumption”, Ariadna Rodrigo of Friends of the Earth commented.
The roadmap towards a resource-efficient Europe is indeed in favour of indicators but the Parliament, as FoE is pleased to point out, has clearly stated that there is only one way to measure the use of resources by Europe and that is by using a rigorous scientific method. (AN/transl.jl)