Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-02-13-Speech-2-154"
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"en.20070213.16.2-154"2
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"Mr President, I should like to thank all the Members for staying until the very end. It is always a challenge to create a real debate and not just to have monologues.
I should like to make three comments. Firstly, I should like to follow up on something to which many of you referred: the deadlock over the Constitutional Treaty and what many of you have pointed to as a lack of commitment from our political leaders in Europe today. The Commission, of course, fully backs what we could call a courageous and ambitious commitment from the German Presidency to ensure that this whole issue is moved from a stage of reflection to one of action. We know it will not be easy to find solutions, but we will help as much as we can. We must overcome this deadlock as soon as possible.
The outcome of the spring Council will be very important in this respect, as will its capacity to deliver on the crucial issues on the agenda, including climate change. I should like to comment on what some of you have said about the ambitions of the Commission and the European Union. It is important to say that there is a longer-term objective and target for what we have to do in order to fight climate change. The 30% cut in developed countries’ emissions by 2020 is a necessary step towards the longer-term objective of reducing them by as much as 50% below 1990 levels by 2050. It is necessary to see that this is a step in that direction. This reduction is essential if we are to meet the 2°C objective, which we know, in turn, should prevent massive and irreversible disruption of the global climate system. It is the developed countries that should continue to shoulder most of this global effort to reduce emissions over the next decade or so, as they are already doing under the Kyoto Protocol, so as both to be credible and motivate those poorer countries in the world that will have to follow suit.
We asked the group of developed countries to reduce by 30%. Let us ask ourselves whether this is ambitious. Compared to 1990, US emissions are currently up by 15%, those of the EU-25 are down by 5% and those of Russia are down by 30%. It will not be easy, and you cannot see it individually, but it represents a huge challenge.
Let me also mention the costs, because many of you have referred to the costs for industry. The Commission has made impact assessments that show that taking action to limit climate change is fully compatible with sustaining global growth. Investment in a low-carbon economy will require around half a percent of global GDP over the period from 2013 to 2030 and would reduce global GDP growth by 0.19% per year, which is a fraction of the expected annual GDP growth rate of 2.8%.
This is without associated health benefits, greater energy security and reduced damage from avoided climate change being taken into account. This is a small insurance premium to pay for significantly reducing the risk of irreversible damage to our economy and to our planet, and especially if you compare it with the Stern Review’s estimate that uncontrolled climate change will cost between 5 and 20% of GDP in the longer term. So we must consider the cost of inaction! Climate change is already costing us – just ask insurance companies all over the world.
Finally, the spring Council is about the Lisbon Strategy. You are absolutely right that, if we want to communicate, we have to mention that it is about jobs and growth. Lisbon is also about the courage of reform. I fully agree with Mr Watson that there is ample evidence that reforms work. However, we also have evidence that societies dominated by fears and insecurity are not easy to reform: they are afraid of change. That is also what we see in Europe and that is why we have to build confidence and remember that the Lisbon Strategy – the jobs and growth strategy – is also about fighting social exclusion and poverty; fighting poverty in Europe as well, improving quality of work, investing in education, building civic competence and investing in people. That is the only way to overcome the fears.
Listening to all these interesting speeches, I am reminded of the intimate link between the growth and jobs strategy and sustainable development, because we have heard all the arguments for why we as Europeans would like to see economic growth, coupled with social security and maintenance of a high level of environmental protection, while continuing to be ambitious. I think that sustainable development is an objective which is gaining ground more and more as the vision for Europe and for the world."@en1
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