Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-12-15-Speech-3-035"
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"en.19991215.3.3-035"2
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"Mr President, it is of course interesting to listen to Commissioner Wallström and Representative of the Council Hassi. You express a certain optimism when it comes to the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, which I appreciate that one has to do in your position. I personally am not so optimistic.
Greenhouse gases continue to increase throughout the world more than seven years after the Climate Convention was signed. I have been participating in a worldwide energy analysis which is just now being carried out. This shows – and, unfortunately, this has perhaps to be emphasised – that there will be plenty of fossil fuels for the foreseeable future. Even if demand increases in the future, we shall be more or less swimming in oil and gas, and it will be cheap oil and gas. It is therefore absolutely necessary to take political measures. The market cannot put the environmental consequences in question into the equation. We must levy taxes and charges, and we must devise norms and standards if we want the alternatives which exist in the energy sphere to have a chance.
The United States’s passive attitude thus far has already been mentioned. I have come to the conclusion that the European Union must very much take a leading role in this work. The resolution states a number of steps which could lead to the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol if Europe were to take the lead: a reduction of emissions here at home; concrete plans to reduce emissions in the most important sectors, above all within the transport sector where emissions are increasing most quickly; the introduction of economic instruments of control; early ratification of the Kyoto Protocol; and intensified dialogue, both with Japan and with the developing countries.
I realise, like earlier speakers, that we must involve America in this, but we cannot wait for their leadership. My question both to Commissioner Wallström and Representative of the Council Hassi is this: you have expressed a general optimism; now where is the conclusion? My other question to Commissioner Wallström is this: are you prepared to give pro-active leadership a chance and, if so, how will it be possible for this to develop in the current political climate?"@en1
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