Europe Needs To Lead, Mr Stevenson

Photo by anka @ happyhangaround

I usually take part in 'Cyberactions' - quick emails that organisations like Friends of the Earth ask you to send to various bodies and representatives in order to pressure them on a decision.

Tomorrow, the European Parliament will finally get around to voting on a 30% emissions reduction target. They've already got a 20% by 2020 target which they're on course to beat, so you would think upping that to 30% wouldn't produce too many problems.

You'd be wrong. Poland looks set to veto the target, and the conservative block of MEPs are likely to vote against it as well.

Which is where the Cyberaction comes in. Stop Climate Chaos asked that we email our MEPs and the Tory leader urging them not to vote against the 30% target. (You can take part here). I've emailed MEPs before and been ignored, all bar the Tory Struan Stevenson. Impressed at the time, I admitted some new-found respect for him.

Well, not any more.

His email in reply is obviously a standard one which he is sending to all who take part in the Cyberaction. Here's what he says:

Conservative MEPs have always been sceptical of the EU unilaterally increasing its target to 30% without a worldwide agreement. Struan is in favour of increasing the EU target to 30%, or even higher, in the context of a global agreement where our competitor countries take similar action. Increasing our own targets while the rest of the world does nothing will have virtually no measurable affect on global emissions because it will force large EU emitters to relocate to other countries outside the EU where they will continue to emit at a much lower cost. There is a serious risk of carbon leakage which, in our view, poses an even greater danger to the environment.

At the same time as effectively exporting our carbon emissions to less stringent parts of the world we would be exporting our jobs too - European companies will be unable to compete if the reduction targets are set too high. Many high energy consuming companies are already being forced to relocate to countries outside of the EU, to areas which have little or no environmental legislation, putting many Europeans out of work, and an increased target will exacerbate this trend. We are also concerned that the higher carbon emission costs resulting from an increased target will feed through into energy price increases for domestic consumers, who are already facing steep rises.

So basically, the EU is too small to make a difference. It's the same argument every country uses, every city uses: "We're too wee, and nobody else is doing it". Of course nobody else is doing it, we're all waiting for someone to take that first step! The EU has the opportunity to show the way here, to lead instead of just reacting to circumstance.

As for the jobs argument, Mr Stevenson takes no account of the jobs that will be created by new, renewable industries, of the investments made and the chance to stand astride the world with our expertise. All he's concerned with are low-quality jobs in polluting industries. These types of jobs can't all be outsourced to the Indian Subcontinent - some of them will have to stay here, and will have to raise their game and become less polluting as a result.

Let's get the entire continent together and lead the way on tackling the climate crisis.