An interesting report came out of the European Union last week. The EU Committee of the Regions said on June 18th that a complete overhaul of all EU policies is needed to make sure that efforts to tackle climate change are not undermined. A resolution adopted by the CoR at its plenary session on the 18th warns that a far greater level of coordination between EU policies will be necessary if ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are to be met. North America, and other jurisdictions, should take heed.

The resolution, drawn up by the CoR's political groups and endorsed by the 344-member assembly, highlights the lack of consistency in the EU's climate change legislation.

"Europe has some of the world's most stringent climate change legislation, but there is still much room for improvement. For example, the good work of the emissions trading scheme, which has led to a reduction in industrial emissions, is undermined by the slow progress towards more sustainable forms of transport — by far the biggest source of carbon emissions in the EU. Binding targets on energy efficiency and a greater coordination between energy and climate change policies would also be more effective in meeting the goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020," said Luc Van den Brande, President of the CoR.

Integrated thinking
The resolution also stresses the need for greater coordination between the various levels of government in drawing up effective climate change policies, and emphasizes the important role already being played by sub-national public authorities in both tackling the causes and responding to the effects of climate change.

Two opinions adopted by the CoR at the June plenary session underline this need for "joined-up" or integrated thinking on climate change. In his opinion on a new impetus for halting biodiversity loss, Renè Souchon, President of Auvergne Regional Council, makes the explicit link between climate change and the extinction of species, and underscores the difficulty faced by the EU in balancing both issues. "One solution to reducing transport emissions is to switch from fossil fuels to biofuels, but the large amount of land needed to produce energy crops in sufficient quantities has a direct consequence on biodiversity, with the incentive to turn fallow land and forests into cash crops. We need to make sure that measures designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions do not have a damaging effect on biological diversity."

The opinion of Mona-Lisa Norrman, member of Jämtland county council, on the management of bio-waste in the European Union stresses that a similar approach is needed when it comes to recycling. "Bio-gas produced by food waste can be an effective source of renewable energy to power transport or heat public buildings, and as such can help contribute to the EU's overall climate and energy goals. But this is often undermined by the need to transport bio-waste long distances to be treated, thereby increasing emissions. That is why it is important to encourage the development of waste management systems at the local level."

COP15 role for regions
The resolution also reiterates the CoR's call for local and regional authorities to be more widely involved in the negotiation of a new global climate change deal to be agreed upon at the UN's COP15 summit in Copenhagen in December. A successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change adaptation and mitigation is the goal of the Copenhagen summit, and the CoR insists that any agreement recognise the key role played at the sub-national level in both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and in coping with the effects of climate change. President Van den Brande has urged the Swedish Presidency, which will head the EU's negotiators at COP15, to include the CoR in the EU delegation.

Visit the CoR's website at www.cor.europa.eu.

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