Ian Hamilton responds to Janet Daley in the Daily Telegraph “If Janet Daley feels that climate change can only be combatted by “socially divisive” measures allowing only the rich to enjoy travel, then how about Aubrey Meyer’s concept of “Contraction and Convergence?” This system envisages an internationally agreed carbon allocation for every individual on the planet, to be achieved over a limited period, which would result in a kind of ecological egalitarianism, rather than the elitism she rightly criticises in her piece. The role of government in this is to plan and coordinate the necessary fiscal and investment policies to encourage the scaling up of sustainable industries and the scaling down of the destructive ones. Regarding population, it is surely unconvincing to argue that because Malthus got it wrong in 1798, then we do not have a problem, when in 50 years the world population has grown from 2.5 to 6.5 billion, and rising. It seems that Janet wants to cling to the idea that we can carry on as usual, leaving our children and their children to survive in a dustbowl, where life will amount to little more than an increasingly desperate struggle for physical survival.” www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3636074/If-the-eco-snobs-had-their-way,-none-of-us-would-go-anywhere.htm
OPINION of the Committee on Development For the Committee on Foreign Affairs on external relations in the field of energy - from principles to actions Draftsperson: Anders Wijkman -Commission on International Trade calls on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, responsible for that matter, to include in the final text of the draft resolution: 1. stresses the important role of the international trading system and trade agreements to ensure a stable regulatory framework conducive to creating the appropriate environment to explore new and innovative solutions to energy, especially in the field of renewable and sustainable sources of energy; 2. encourages cross-border investment, the reciprocal opening of markets, respect for the principles of competition and strategic plans in the field of long-term contracts; 3. supports the principle of extending the Energy Community in order to create a pan-European energy community, functioning on the basis of a transparent market economy; 4. Calls on the Commission to promote fair competition at the international level through activities within the World Trade Organization (WTO) for specific rules relating to the transparency of the energy market, particularly in the trade-distorting measures; 5. recommends that the Commission’s assessment of the potential for the WTO to negotiate multilateral agreements on specific energy markets, as the market for bio-fuels, and as soon as possible to inform the European Parliament on the results of this evaluation; 6. considers it necessary to include in all new trade agreements concluded by the EU’s energy; 7. Calls on the Commission to organize a high-level meetings involving the State’s major importers and suppliers of state for the EU, ranging from oil and gas; 8. expects that, as a result of higher energy prices will increase in global demand in the field of research on energy, believes that, in light of the acquisition by European manufacturers to play a leading role in technology, they are specifically placed to meet this demand, therefore, calls on the Commission, in conjunction with producers and the Member States to make initiatives to promote research in the field of energy and, in particular, research on the wider use of renewable energy and hydrogen, and to promote the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) - the project will combine, in addition to the EU, United States, Japan, Russia, China , India and Korea; 9. stresses that the main priority for European foreign policy in the energy field must be to reduce dependence on fossil fuels from a number of large suppliers and the need to define a long-term strategy aimed at diversifying sources of energy; 10. is convinced that a global system of reducing CO2 emissions and emissions trading provided for in the Kyoto Protocol will contribute to slowing growth in demand for energy on a global scale and emphasizes that such a system should draw on the principles supported by the United Nations and the reduction of convergence (called contraction and convergence), through which all countries have reached the same time the rate of emissions per capita, also believes that to achieve the above-mentioned will contribute to reducing emissions from ships and aircraft;
159