The emergency continues

The environmental emergency continues to be one of the main talking points at the European Parliament, the institution that seems to have taken most to heart the problem denounced by all the experts and tackled in recent times, with various levels of effectiveness, also by the European Commission and Council. It’s enough to think of the conclusions of the summit in March with the pledges made by the heads of state and of government of the 27 on the energy question. RESOURCES, ENERGY, SUSTAINABILITY. Last week the European Parliament, meeting in Brussels, dedicated two days to environmental protection and the promotion of renewable energy sources: a series of analyses, debates, and contributions by experts (including the American economist and writer Jeremy Rifkin and the Indian environmentalist and politician Maneka Gandhi) culminated, on Wednesday 11 April, in the prize-giving ceremony of the Energy Globe Awards 2007, with prizes awarded to projects from all over the world, subdivided into five categories: earth, fire, water, air and youth. The aim of the event – explained the President HANS-GERT POETTERING welcoming guests of various nationalities – “is to familiarise the public at large with the best solutions to current challenges in terms of energy and climate change”. OVER 700 PROJECTS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD. The projects entered in the competition had to have as their criterion the “careful and parsimonious” exploitation of resources and “the sustainable use of energy sources”: a total of 732 projects from 96 countries were entered for the Energy Globe Awards. The winner, chosen by a popular jury, was the Kenyan JOHN MAINA , who presented his invention, already in application, “that uses solar-powered ovens – he explained – to dry fruit and vegetables”. MANEKA GANDHI said she was “surprised and impressed by the fact that the European Parliament had made its plenary available for the presentation of the prize: it’s the first Parliament in the world to have done such a thing”. WOLFGANG NEUMANN , the man who devised the Energy Globe Awards, expressed the hope “that the success of the event would help generate a collective awakening on the environmental issue”. The personalities present at the gala ceremony also included the American actor MARTIN SHEEN . “I’m a concerned citizen – he said -. As an inhabitant of planet earth, I’ve assumed my responsibilities to do what’s needed” and “to involve as many people as possible in campaigning for the environment”. After noting that it’s the poor countries of the globe that “have to suffer most from the lack of water and clean air”, Sheen (known for his long political activism and his public pacifist, anti-abortion and environmentalist campaigning) reflected on the ambiguous position of the USA: “We need to wake up. If public opinion in America is slowly waking up, that’s certainly not thanks to the government, but to the environmentalists”. CRITICISMS OF EU IMMOBILITY. Meanwhile, the idea of the EP setting up a temporary commission to deal in particular with the threats posed by greenhouse gases and the raising of the planet’s temperature is gaining ground. During the next plenary session, scheduled to be held in Strasbourg on 23-26 April, the EP will hear a “Report on the thematic strategy for the sustainable use of natural resources”. Already discussed in the EP’s committee for environment and public health, its author is the Dutch MEP KARTIKA TAMARA LIOTARD . It contains a wide-ranging and searching analysis of the particularly alarming situation on the environmental front and criticises what it sees as the immobility of the EU and of the international community as a whole. “Natural resources are being subjected to an ever more serious and extensive threat of erosion, exhaustion and pollution – says the Report -. Economic growth is being accompanied by the increased consumption of renewable and non-renewable natural resources. The capacity of the environment to support this burden has been far exceeded”. “NO MORE HALF MEASURES”. Liotard calls for a “structured strategy” and declares: “As regards the sustainable use of natural resources, we are having to tackle a problem akin to that of climate change. It is possible to improve the situation, but if we want to do so we need to act rapidly. There is no room, in a situation of this kind, for political negligence. It’s essential to adopt ambitious programmes”. The Report rejects “half measures” and the hesitations of the Commission and member states, and calls for specific decisions in various fields: lifestyles, models of consumption and of production; search for alternative energy sources; involvement in environmental defence of all Common policies, including agriculture and fishing; “elimination of political disharmony” at the EU level and among member states; and “support for the developing countries”.