Brussels, 24/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - From its inaugural meeting, in Strasbourg on 21 May, the 60-strong temporary Parliamentary committee on climate change realised the size of its task, proportional with what is at stake (see EUROPE 9414).
“2007 and 2008 will let us know if we can save the planet. These two years will be key to our knowing whether the conditions for a real battle against climate change exist. This committee must be a kind of taskforce to try to prevent total failure,” said committee chairman Guido Sacconi (PES, Italy), who was the principal rapporteur on the thorny issue of Reach, on chemical products.
The main objectives of this temporary body will be to support EU negotiators in building a world parliamentary coalition (including the US Congress, and also the parliaments of emerging countries with strong economic growth), and to mobilise Europe supported by joint action by national and regional parliaments to raise public awareness that can then bring pressure to bear on governments and international organisations. The next conference of the United Nations Framework Convention, which in Bali next December, is expected to launch negotiations for an overall system for fighting global warming after 2012 (end of first period of commitments in Kyoto Protocol) will provide a real test. The targets defined by the European Council on 8-9 March and which the EU will defend on this occasion, are, according to Guido Sacconi, a good basis on which they should seek to capitalise on. “Europe's response is now strong and capable of rapidly launching an energy reconversion in production and consumption”.
Karl-Heinz Florenz (EPP-ED, Germany, former president of the parliamentary environment committee) is a rapporteur for the temporary committee whose composition was formally approved on 10 May (22 members of the EPP-ED, 18 PES, 8 ADLE, 3UEN, 3 Greens/EFA, 1 IND/DEM, 1 ITS, 1 non-attached). The next temporary committee work committee is on 7 June. (an)