European Parliament Split Site Damages Climate

European Parliament Split Site Damages Climate



   
April 2007 -   As the European 
Parliament Wednesday established a new climate change 
committee to develop policy options for the 27 member European 
Union, a new report was released documenting how the 
Parliament's own setup - with two locations and alternate 
meetings in Brussels and Strasbourg - is damaging the climate.
 The new 60 member committee will start work May 10. It will 
draft proposals for a future climate change policy to be 
integrated across all EU member states and an EU negotiating 
position for climate policy after 2012, when the Kyoto 
Protocol expires. 
The EU is legally bound to meet the Kyoto target of reducing 
greenhouse gas emissions an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 
levels by 2012. 
With the Kyoto Protocol's targets due to expire in 2012, 
European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas welcomed the 
formation of the new committee. He underlined the urgent need 
to launch international negotiations on a new global agreement 
to combat climate change at the next UN ministerial conference 
on climate change in December. 
Dimas said the new panel could play a role in encouraging 
third countries, particularly the United States, to take 
action to tackle climate change. It could be very helpful in 
raising awareness and in pushing climate change to the top of 
the international agenda, he said. 
European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas speaking at 
the European Parliament building Brussels, Belgium. 
"The Parliament's support for strong action on climate change 
is very important in developing the [European] Community's 
agenda in this crucial area and I am confident the new 
committee will make a significant contribution in this regard 
as well as to the international debate," Dimas said. 
The committee will hold hearings with the parliaments and 
governments of the member states and third countries, the 
European institutions and international organizations, as well 
as representatives of the scientific community, business and 
civil society, including the networks of local and regional 
authorities. 
The powers of the European Parliament's standing committees on 
climate change remain in place while the temporary committee 
can recommend measures or initiatives. 
The committee will draw up an inventory of recent advances and 
future prospects in combating climate change and study their 
environmental, legal, economic, social, geopolitical, regional 
and public health impact. The committee also will analyze and 
evaluate the application of existing EU climate legislation. 
The European Parliament building in Strasbourg, France 
Some of the problem may lie with the way European Parliament, 
EP, is organized today, with a split site in Brussels and 
Strasbourg, according to a new independent study commissioned 
by UK Green MEPs Jean Lambert and Caroline Lucas. 
The first study of the climate change impacts of having two 
seats, warns that at a cost of more than €200 million euros 
and 20,268 metric tons of additional carbon dioxide emissions 
every year - more than some countries - such practice is 
damaging the environment and undermining EU efforts to cut CO2 
emissions by 20 percent by 2020. 
Based on "best case" data and estimates provided by the EU 
itself, the report includes only transport and energy 
emissions without examining other impacts. It projects that 
actual emissions are likely to be far higher, possibly in the 
region of 30,000 metric tons. 
"The European Parliament is set to vote today to constitute a 
temporary committee on climate change," said Lambert on 
Wednesday. "Before we start throwing stones however, we should 
make sure that our own house or houses are in order." 
Green MEP Jean Lambert represents London, England. 
"It is seriously damaging to the EP's credibility to have its 
MEPs chauffeur-driven in gas-guzzling cars, while working on 
legislation to set targets for EU car emissions, or to be 
debating EU renewables targets when 0 percent of the EP's 
energy comes from renewable sources," she said. "The EP has to 
lead not only in rhetoric but also in its actions." 
Lambert and Lucas called on the EU to "put its own house in 
order" and end the "travelling circus" that sees 2,000 
parliamentary staff and interpreters, nearly 1,000 assistants, 
journalists and lobbyists, 785 MEPs and 15 truck loads of 
trunks and documents relocated every month. 
The study, researched by Professor of Sustainable Transport 
John Whitelegg of the Stockholm Environment Institute at the 
University of York, totals the extra carbon emissions 
generated every month by MEPs, staff, journalists and visitors 
travelling from Brussels to Strasbourg and back, the carbon 
costs of freight between the two sites, and the energy needed 
to maintain the two Parliament buildings. 
The study reports that ending the Strasbourg parliamentary 
sessions would cut the need at a stroke for 2,650 offices, a 
debating chamber and nearly 50 conference rooms, most with 
full translation facilities. That could cut emissions by 3,928 
tonnes of CO2 just in electricity and gas alone. 
Green MEP Caroline Lucas represents the UK's South-east 
region. 
"Maintaining two parliamentary chambers, with the office space 
this entails, and transporting up to 3,000 supporting staff 
and journalists to and fro clearly has a negative impact on 
the environment," said Lucas. 
"This anachronistic arrangement is completely unnecessary and 
undermines the credibility of the EU in positioning itself as 
the leader in the global fight against climate change," she 
said. 
Lambert said, "Strasbourg is a historic city that has 
symbolized post-war reconciliation but the European 
Parliament's Strasbourg seat has come to represent all that is 
wrong with the EU." 
"Now we have evidence of the environmental damage it 
represents," said Lambert. "How much longer will EU heads of 
state and government bury their heads in the sand and refuse 
to end this ridiculous arrangement, which a clear majority of 
EU citizenvironment news and MEPs oppose?" 
The Green MEPs suggest that the Parliament implement energy 
saving measures and a much greater use of video conferencing, 
update the EU's car fleet to make it more climate-friendly, 
and switch to a green energy provider. 

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