Brussels, 07/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - The WWF is looking to put the candidates for the European elections (22-25 May) to the test over their commitment to the environment to help citizens decide who to vote for. The online campaign launched on Monday 7 April invites candidates to show how committed on nine environmental areas that are priorities for EU in line with EU citizens. MEP candidates have until 25 May to sign the commitment on Ep2014.wwf.eu. The priorities in question are:
1) Tackling climate change (90% of Europeans want their governments to increase the share of renewable energies used in total energy consumption by 2030); 2) moving to a resource-efficient economy (83% of Europeans consider that using resources efficiently can help to stimulate economic growth in the EU); 3) halting losses of biodiversity (92% of Europeans are afraid of the impact that losses of biodiversity can have); 4) encouraging sustainable and healthy consumption models (87% of Europeans want more efficient use of the EU's natural resources); 5) guaranteeing clean and healthy water (73% of Europeans think that the EU should do more to tackle water-related problems in the EU); 6) environmental protection for humanity's well-being worldwide (95% of Europeans consider that protecting the environment is important to them at a personal level); 7) guaranteeing sustainable agriculture (93% of Europeans want subsidies to agriculture and fishing to take account of environmental protection); 8) restoring fish stocks (88% of Europeans want fish in the EU to come from sustainable sources rather from areas which are overfished); 9) stopping the illegal timber and wildlife trades (93% of the citizens asked agree that it is important that products sold in Europe are legally harvested and traded).
Through its 22 offices across the EU and millions of supporters, the WWF hopes to mobilise election candidates and voters through a joint appeal to ensure that Europe remains in the vanguard in environmental protection matters and uses its resources more efficiently to build a sustainable economy for its citizens. These priorities comply with the expectations of European citizens as shown in Eurobarometer surveys (priorities 1 to 7), a WWF study from April 2011 on the reform of the CAP (priority 8) and a study into the illegal trade in wood from March 2009 (priority 9). (AN)