The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the Commission’s White Paper: “Adapting to climate change: Towards a European framework for action”.
Parliament welcomes the White Paper and agrees with the objective of the proposed EU Adaptation Framework, i.e. to improve the EU’s resilience in dealing with the impact of climate change. It especially welcomes the emphasis on increasing the resilience of all ecosystems as an essential defence against the impacts of climate change.
Parliament highlights the importance of establishing national adaptation plans based on a common European framework enabling the Member States to plan and communicate their adaptation efforts. It considers that such plans need to include risk and hazard maps showing infrastructure and installations that could pose a risk to the environment or to public health should adverse weather events occur. It calls for such information to be made available to the public and the other Member States.
The resolution also highlights the importance of mainstreaming adaptation into all EU policies, particularly the common agricultural and fisheries policies, forestry policy and cohesion policy, and into legislation on environmental impact assessment, planning permission and building standards, (and of ensuring the coherence of such measures by means of a horizontal, cross-sectoral approach based on ecosystem resilience.
The report’s salient issues are as follows:
Developing the knowledge base: the resolution calls on the Commission not only to develop a knowledge base about the impact of climate change with specific reference to the European Union, but also to pass on that knowledge to developing and industrialising countries. It also emphasises that research efforts should be strengthened, within the framework of the current Seventh Framework Programme and future research framework programmes, in order to address existing knowledge gaps in relation to hazards (past and likely future weather-related disasters).
Parliament takes the view that vulnerability indicators should be drawn up as a matter of urgency. It urges the EEA, therefore, to produce reports analysing the risks that climate change presents to Europe’s most vulnerable regions.
The Commission is urged to ensure easy access to detailed data and to ensure that the Clearing House Mechanism is developed as a portal, which will integrate other existing systems and that this mechanism should add value in terms of preparing the EU, the Member States and private stakeholders to plan, fund and implement proper adaptation plans.
Integrating adaptation into EU policies: Members emphasise the need to adopt a cross-sectoral approach based on ecosystem resilience, habitat and biodiversity protection and the services provided by ecosystems, and to ensure synergy and coherence among the measures to be taken as part of all relevant sector-specific policies, such as water, agriculture and forestry, fisheries, soil, coastal and islands areas, health and social policies, infrastructure, transport, energy, biodiversity, urban environments, migration, cultural heritage.
As far as soil is concerned, the resolution recognises that soil degradation has primarily local and regional causes and impacts, and that the principle of subsidiarity should consequently be respected. It urges those Member States without soil protection legislation to shoulder their responsibilities.
With regard to infrastructure, one amendment adopted in plenary underlines the need to ensure that environmental impact assessments take in general into account probable different adaptation scenarios to the extent that these scenarios are scientifically substantiated.
The Commission is invited to investigate whether electricity production potential from renewable and fossil fuel energy sources will change as a result of climate change, and draws particular attention to the constraints on the cooling of thermal power stations and the consequences thereof. Parliament notes, in relation to the cooling of reactors, the particular risks posed to the safety of nuclear installations during heat waves, a problem which can have potentially significant negative environmental impacts on surrounding waters and security of supply implications.
Another amendment adopted in plenary stresses that measures concerning energy supply and access to energy have to be defined in a context of solidarity among Member States and that the EU should contribute to a global policy shift towards greater energy efficiency and the promotion of low-carbon energy sources, e.g. renewable energy sources (RES). In addition, Member States are called upon to provide, by 30 June 2010, ambitious, comprehensive and realistic national action plans in accordance with the models and parameters laid down by the EU, observing that the needs of each Member State for energy from renewable sources must be met principally by domestic production, while the mechanism for the statistical transfer of energy from renewable sources between Member States must be used only where this is considered to be fully justified.
Structure and governance: Members stress the need for local and regional authorities to be recognised as pivotal actors in the struggle against the harmful effects of climate change. They believe that measures should be taken that reconcile economically innovative and sustainable action with protection of the natural environment and thus minimise conflicts of use between ecological and economic interests.
The Commission and the Member States are invited to:
Financing: the resolution emphasises that the EU budget does not currently reflect EU policy priorities in the field of adaptation to climate change. It stresses that the next multiannual financial framework should accord a high ranking to climate change, and in particular to adaptation measures, ensuring that the necessary funds are available.
Parliament recognises the historical responsibility borne by the industrialised countries for the current increase in global temperatures. It reiterates the statements it made in resolution of 10 February 2010, including that EU commitments to finance climate efforts in developing countries should be new and additional to existing ODA commitments and independent of annual budgetary procedures in the Member States.
External dimension: the resolution reiterates the need to include adaptation measures in all EU external policies, in accordance with the Copenhagen Accord. The Commission is asked to consider increasing the public funds devoted to international cooperation in the forthcoming 8th Framework Programme (FP8), in: (a) developed countries, in order to increase the spread of renewable technologies; (b) developing countries, in order to support their fight against climate change affecting the most vulnerable regions of such countries, always with due regard to the particular circumstances of each region, the criterion being the social and economic development of those regions of developing countries with which international cooperation is organised; and (c) third countries adjoining the EU in which the effects of climate change are similar to those observed within the EU.
Lastly, Members support the proposal of the Commission to set up an impact and adaptation steering group.