European Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard has expressed conviction that the European Commission would have a good cooperation with the Cypriot presidency of the Council of Ministers on issues concerning climate action.
In statements at a press conference in Nicosia, Hedegaard said that “from the conversation with the Minister and the meeting with the parties of the Parliament it seems that awareness is rising in Cyprus because of the water situation and draught situation and the weird weather”.
“It really seems that there is a will to engage to these issues and that is very good and is very clear from what the Minister said that he will try to help as much as he can”, she added.
She stressed that “I’m very confident that we will have a good cooperation with the Cypriot Presidency”.
The Commissioner was also asked whether the EU can press on climate matters in the Turkish occupied areas of Cyprus.
“We do everything to urge both parties to try to make more progress. We are very keen on seeing progress there and we are very concerned if things are sort of escalating. It’s extremely important to try to find a solution for these. I know that is very difficult, we wish to see all in the Commission this window of opportunity that the UN SG is talking about” she said.
She recalled that at her meetings with NGOs in Cyprus there were representatives from both the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot side.
Invited to comment on the Cypriot Parliament’s debate to penalize not environmental practices, she said that this would be a good idea for Europe.
“If you have some wrong environmental practices, how you can get rid of them. One thing is industry regulation but the other thing is to make economic incentives for industry to do thing in a more clean and green way” she noted.
Hedegaard said that one year ago the Commission presented a law carbon road-map for 2050, adding “we see no contradiction between the economic crisis and what we have to do in the climate and environment field. Things are interlinked”.
Last year, she said, in EU27 we imported only oil for 350 billion euros.
“40% increase compare to the year before because 2011 was the first year that we paid for the oil more than 100 per barrel. It’s almost the size of Greek debt. If we can be more energy efficient then we can actually save some of this money that will be good for citizens and the economy”, she added.
The Commissioner noted that this “makes us invest more money to our own societies instead of purring money into other kind of regimes outside Europe and thus we can create jobs for unemployed Europeans”.
If we start now, she continued, “it will be cheaper than continue to do the wrong thing for more years and later decide to do something different and undo the wrong things”.
“We have calculated in the Commission that if we deliver in the energy efficiency target 20% by 2020 then the potential for that is 2 million jobs created in Europe”, she pointed out.
Replying to questions, she said that instead of supporting building a new highway it would be wiser to use the money for train connections, bus connections.
“If we need a low carbon development maybe it would be wise also to spend the common EU budget more in line with that priority. In the Commission proposal for the next EU budget we have at least 20% of the whole budget, we think that it should help us to achieve the climate targets”, she continued.
As regards Poland’s veto on EU carbon roadmap, she said that Poland for the second time blocked the Environment Council conclusions and “that is not making things easier”.
“Of course it was bad news that Poland chose to block but it was good news that all the other 26 member-states actually agreed to the roadmap and the indicative milestones for 2040 and sent a very strong signal to us that they know that this is the right pass forward for Europe”, she concluded.
Cyprus, which is occupied by Turkish troops since 1974, will assume the presidency of the EU Council of Ministers in the second half of 2012.
