Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-01-10-Speech-1-048"
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to start by saying that I fully endorse everything the President said about the unprecedented disaster in South-East Asia, and by congratulating the European Parliament on its immediate response to the question of the aid which the European Union will make available accordingly.
To close, the discussion we had in Buenos Aires and the results of it, which are positive overall, gave us the opportunity to stimulate the dialogue within the European Union about what will happen after 2012. We have two opportunities: one was the Council of Ministers held on 20 December, which reformulated the European Union's commitment on preventing the overall temperature of the planet from rising more than two decrees Celsius over coming years, as well as the need for target percentages for increases in carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases. The second is the spring European Council, to which the Commission will contribute two papers: a working report on the cost and benefits of taking action or not taking action on questions of climate change and a Commission communication on the evaluation of the strategies required for the period after 2012 and what we shall do until then. Of course, we also await the contribution of the European Parliament in the matter.
I should like to say that the results from Buenos Aires, which did not receive such good coverage by the press and the media, were better than the results presented in the media. I repeat that they were not the results we wanted, but they were better than the results we expected before we went and, as such, we can say that, overall, the results were positive.
I must say that the European Union not only was generous but also responded quickly and efficiently to this unprecedented tragedy. It mobilised immediately. The day after the disaster, experts from the humanitarian aid office, ECHO, and the Committee on Civil Protection were in Sri Lanka and Thailand, helping to coordinate, to identify the problems, to evaluate and assess the damage and the need for certain supplies and to improve the coordination of such supplies. They will doubtless remain there for a long time, because even greater efforts are being made to restore and reconstruct the area and the support of the European Union needs to be constant.
I should like first of all to thank you for giving me this opportunity to debate with you this evening the results of the tenth conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was held in Buenos Aires last month. I must say, first of all, that it was attended by the chairman of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, Mr Florenz, and 7 other members, whose participation was very, very important. I have to say that they supported us, they helped us and they advised us during the negotiations, right to the end. On the last day in particular, we were in constant contact during the very tough negotiations which took place there. I have to say that the results were not spectacular. However, they were better than the results we expected, especially the results we expected before the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by Russia, in other words before we confirmed that the Kyoto Protocol would enter into force. We can therefore say that the overall results were positive. There are a number of points I can mention which illustrate this.
The first and perhaps most important of all was the discussion about what will happen after Kyoto which, according to the Kyoto Protocol, should start in 2005. We met with a great deal of reaction here; the United States and certain developing countries barely even wanted to talk. To be precise, they did not even want to discuss the possibility of starting discussions in 2005. After very tough negotiations, as I said earlier, we managed to agree, following a proposal tabled by the ambassador of Argentina, Mr Estrada, that a seminar would be held in May on two material issues: the first concerns the present situation and the second, which we insisted be included, concerns future developments. It is a first step, a hesitant step in my view, but a first step nonetheless towards negotiations, towards the discussion about what will happen after 2012 in connection with the repercussions of climate change. I must say that we had allies at these negotiations, which is an important development, in the form of numerous developing countries, such as Brazil, South Africa and numerous African countries, which previously were hesitant but which this time supported the efforts we were making to get discussions started.
Another very important point is the agreement on a five-year programme to bring developing countries into line with the requirements of climate change. I can say that we had important support here from these countries, which also stand to gain from this programme.
The third important point concerns certain clarifications about the clean development mechanism. It is one of the mechanisms for which provision is made in the Kyoto Protocol and which has become very important with the start of the application of the Protocol and the operation of the carbon dioxide trading system in the European Union. We shall have a great many applications for approvals being filed with the executive office in Bonn, which therefore needs reinforcing. It needs to become more transparent. Money is needed if it is to be able to operate efficiently and contribute to the operation of the Kyoto mechanisms.
Another issue related to the clean development mechanism is the registry system, which is needed so that the overall trading system planned can operate, and there are other technical issues which are very important but which are not put forward as much. All of this was discussed and we arrived at solutions and agreements.
I think that the European Union gave an important presentation of the carbon dioxide trading system, which has started operating officially in the meantime since 1 January. This presentation showed and in some way secured the leading role played by the European Union in the question of climate change and incited a great deal of interest. We had ministers from almost every country following the discussion on trading, followed by numerous bilateral meetings with countries which have declared an interest in cooperating, such as Norway, which has had a trading system in operation since 1 January, Japan and Canada; there was even interest from the United States, but they could not participate because they have not signed the Kyoto Protocol. This is a restricted system which operates between the countries which have signed the Kyoto Protocol.
Finally, I should like to say that the most important thing was that we networked through bilateral contacts which both we and the members of the European Parliament had either with corresponding members of national parliaments or with other delegations; this gives us an opportunity to be able to persuade the countries which we need on board if we are to promote the desired targets for the period after 2012, especially the United States, China and India, countries with which we absolutely must find some way to reach agreement."@en1
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