PES Manifesto

Linda McAvan and WWF: The future is in our hands

Published Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 11:23
by Editor (661 views and 0 comments)

Socialists are pushing for more action on climate change, since it is necessary to act now, leaving aside the disastrous “business as usual approach”. Socialist MEP Linda McAvan (Labour UK) hosted the WWF debate “EU Climate action : Do 30% NOW!” on 6 May 2008. Here are a few conclusions from the meeting:

EU has proven to be on the right path in fighting against climate change but more has to be done. Achieving deep emission reductions in Europe by 2020 is not only a question of available technologies but rather one of taking right political decisions. At national level, governments have to create the right incentives to support energy efficiency and promote investments in low carbon technologies and renewables, while at the European level, the European Emissions Trading Scheme should form the central part of the overall European strategy.

If Europe is quite confident that they will move all together in the same direction, what about the others? We have to bear in mind that even if climate change is a global issue, developed countries have an historical responsibility towards developing ones. Therefore OECD countries have to help developing countries to decouple economic growth from greenhouse emissions and adapt to climate change phenomena. There are different possible approaches to prevent carbon leakage coming from other countries such as a “carbon tax” on imports or conditional allocations to industries. However, the better approach seems to be sectoral agreements, cooperation with other countries in specific sectors.

In your view what are the most effective means to fight climate change?

Tags: climate change, CO2, development, environment