Adapt to climate change before seeking solution in Copenhagen

Thursday, 16 April 2009 06:25

For the first time, an informal meeting of the ministers of the EU for the Envir onment held in Prague 15 April has raised the issue of adapting to the effects of climate change. According to Martin Bursik, President of the Envir onment Council and Deputy Prime Minister and outgoing Envir onment Minister of the Czech Republic, "we must change the way we think and include adapting to climate change in our policies, from agriculture to energy and insurance via water management". This message was supported by Jacqueline McGlade, director of the European Envir onment Agency, who stated that this "comes quickly and in different ways to Europe (...), which urges us to act faster than we thought".  

In turn, the ministers of eight Member States ( Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) spoke of measures taken, or to be implemented, in their countries. The UK minister, for example, pleaded for electr onic sockets to be placed higher up and not at ground level, in order to prevent short-circuits in the event of floods.

 In a working document, the Czech Presidency pleaded for an increase in the c onsumpti on of tea (which takes 30 L of water for a 25 cL cup) to the detriment of coffee (for which the entire producti on cycle requires 140 L for a cup of 4.5 cL).

Taking its inspirati on from the White Paper published by the European Commissi on earlier this m onth, the ministers stressed the fact that the c onsequences of climate change differed greatly from one country to the next, and even from one regi on to the next in some cases, and that as a result, adaptati on measures needed to be taken at nati onal level for the most part.

This visi on was, however, slightly nuanced by the President of the Envir onment Council, who stated that there were three main reas ons to coordinate the acti ons of the Member States "Firstly, climate change has a cross-border impact, particularly on the rivers. Besides, there are sectors, such as agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries, which are highly integrated in Europe and for which we have comm on policies. And the third reas on is mutual solidarity between the Member States".

The Envir onment Ministers then discussed preparati ons for negotiati ons on the future internati onal climate agreement, to take place in Copenhagen this December. All of the ministers present acknowledged that reaching an internati onal agreement was of vital importance and, as French Secretary of State for Ecology, Chantal Jouanno, said, that "this informal meeting in Prague was a crucial turning point in preparati ons for Copenhagen, stressing the fact that the EU remains the leader on the dossier of climate change, but that we do not all agree that we are open to a co-leadership once other countries adapt to our level of standards".

(Source: Agence Europe)