15 October 2008 - Green MEP hits out at European Council attempts to use financial crisis to dismantle climate agreement

UK Green MEP Caroline Lucas has hit out at attempts by the European Council to use the financial crisis as an excuse not to tackle climate change – making the case that innovative climate policy could result in the creation of thousands of new jobs.

Dr Lucas, who is also Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, commented:

"Efforts by Member States to deliberately dilute the proposed EU climate legislation, in terms of both targets and mechanisms, are utterly unacceptable.

"In March 2007 Ministers agreed that the EU must unilaterally reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% on 1990 levels if a future global climate agreement is reached. They are now calling this commitment into question, as well as trying to undermine EU emissions reductions still further by allowing for a maximum of whatever targets they do agree to be met by offsetting abroad. The British Government is one of the most active on this point.

"As for the precise policies, among many other worrying moves it seems the Council is rowing back on the "polluter pays" principle that’s supposed to underpin and incentivise emissions reductions via the Emissions Trading System; and to oppose the idea of ringfencing money raised through emissions trading for climate related purposes both at home and abroad.

"To cap it all, Ministers seem to be trying to "lock in" their inadequate ambition, by making their agreements this week so detailed that they will claim no room for manoeuvre when it comes to negotiations with the European Parliament - the democratically elected co-legislator. This is unacceptable and irresponsible, and will jeopardise the chances of having a deal in time for the Poznan talks.

"Attempting to use the financial crisis as an excuse to avoid tougher action on climate change is completely misguided. Ministers are busy cooking up plans to bail out banks to the tune of potentially €2 trillion. This dwarfs the expected costs of the Climate Package - not to mention the far higher costs that will be entailed if we fail to implement it.

"The climate crisis is potentially far more devastating than the economic crisis - and ironically, the measures needed to address it are precisely those which could also help avoid a global recession. Strong policies which sufficiently incentivise wind power, for example, could result in an avoided fuel cost of €20.5 billion across the EU alone by 2020, and provide over 500,000 jobs.

Dr Lucas concluded: "European Ministers should urgently put in place a Green New Deal for Europe: in other words, based on the precedent of Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s, we need the re-reregulation of international finance, an end to subsidies for coal and nuclear, and a major programme of public and private investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency, generating thousands of green-collar jobs in the process. That way we can make the transition away from fossil fuels and avoid a huge economic downturn at the same time."

ENDS