EYP Talk - Your voice on Europe's future. This is the online forum of the European Youth Parliament in the UK.

The Challenge of Climate Change

The challenge of climate change: how can people and governments across Europe help to tackle this global threat?

The panellists in this discussion are:

Mark Avery
Director of Conservation, RSPB

Mark Avery is a scientist by training who heads up the RSPB’s conservation work – from nature reserves to species reintroductions and from research on threatened birds to lobbying government on land use policies that affect wildlife. He has solar panels on his house, gets his energy from RSPB Energy – a green energy scheme – but has to admit to having well-exceeded his lifetime allocation of air travel.

David Baldock
Director, Institute for European Environmental Policy

David Baldock is the Director of the Institute for European Environmental Policy, an independent think tank that seeks to encourage positive environmental policies in Europe. As well as being an authority on European agricultural policy and the environment, David’s specialist areas include the implementation of environmental legislation; and EU strategy with regard to environmental integration. He has an active interest in sustainable development and the external dimension of European policy.

Catherine Stihler MEP

Catherine Stihler has been a Member of the European Parliament representing Scotland since 1999. She is a member of the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee, Regional Development Committee, and a substitute member on the Transport and Tourism Committee. She is Labour’s European Spokesperson for Fisheries and also for Regional Policy. She is also the Vice President of the Moscow Platform. She served as Deputy Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party from 2004 – 2006.

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Posted by Ian Millar moderator on 27/02/2007 - 12:32

Climate change has variously been described as the greatest threat to our way of life and a figment of the collective imagination. In some respects it is a unique problem insofar as there is as much debate about identifying the problem as there is about the solutions themselves.

On our forum at least, there appears to be something of an emerging consensus that climate change is man-made and something that needs to be addressed. This, I think, represents an important shift. Alcoholics Anonymous claim that the first step on the road to recovery is admitting that you have a problem. If that is the case then we can now begin to come to terms with our carbon addiction. It appears to me that the greatest challenge with respect to climate change is deciding where to go now. Most contributors were in agreement that we needed to be more energy efficient and reduce our carbon footprint. However, there was no real agreement on how we should go around doing this or who should take responsibility. Perhaps, as Emma points out, it is difficult to take responsibility for something that is set to have little impact in our lifetimes.

What I found interesting

Posted by Ian Millar moderator on 05/02/2007 - 21:32

What I found interesting about Campbell's post was that he phoned up his local council for a recycling bin - in a sense deferring responsibility to them, for this simple way to make a change. I myself am guilty of this - its too easy to say the council is responsible for recycling, or the government/big business is responsible for climate change.

Though I continue to believe that government can make it easier for its citizens to be environmentally friendly, perhaps it is time that we as individuals take ownwership of this. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has any thoughts on this, especially our experts, or anyone who is watching the discussion but not added anything themselves yet.

Challenge of Climate Change

Posted by cprice on 30/01/2007 - 13:31

Thanks to everyone for some very interesting posts on this topic. Having recently chaired a committee on the issue, I was struck by the need to tackle that particularly dangerous apathy associated with energy consumption/recycling that 'one person cannot make a difference'. So struck in fact that I phoned up my local council and ordered a recycling box, to receive a very courteous response. But as Ian asks, where do you go from these small steps to something larger and more cohesive?

correction!!!!

Posted by Teddy_D on 22/01/2007 - 12:25

Ooops!!! I've jus noticed a small mistake - sorry, everybody I'm just really pressurised with all my January modules coming up!!!! I am a member of EYP, not EP!!! Sorry!!!

Climate Change

Posted by Teddy_D on 20/01/2007 - 20:46

Hello everybody
My name is Theodora (or Teddy, for short - as you prefer) and I am a member of the European Parliament.
The climate change is an enormous issue - even my Economics exam in a week and a half is on the policies that could be applied to combat climate change.
There is no denial that some measures should be taken to slowen down the process of climate change, mainly by reducing pollution and probably by using environmentally-friendly resources of energy production. And yet, there is a big dispute over which energy resources are environmentally friendly or not - there are even people claiming that the cost of wind farms in terms of wasted land is incomparable to the benefits of environmentally-friendly produced energy... Or is it environmentally friendly at all?
On the other hand, if governments try and make firms take account of the external cost of pollution, then wouldn't this worsen energy poverty since prices would jump into the air? Especially if a carbon tax is implemented.
On the other hand, even if the Emissions Trading Scheme is put into operation, there has to be a market for the permits... and countries would still have to face the issues of energy poverty as well as finding an alternative, a SUITABLE alternative. Moreover, this wouldn't work at all unless it is applied on a global scale..
Finally, I recenlty watched a programme on the BBC about the climate changes - and the variant for humanity to move to Mars was investigated into...

Where now?

Posted by Ian Millar moderator on 18/01/2007 - 16:42

So we generally seem to be agreed that there is a problem that needs to be addressed - even if that problem has not been entirely accurately or helpfully characterised by the media/Al Gore.

The big question seems to be where do we go from here? Clearly there is no one big idea that can solve everything, but i'd like to hear what you think needs done.

To start you off here are a few ideas:

It strikes me that we as individuals need help from business and government to make a difference. Apparently standby can account for up to 10 per cent of a household's energy use. If standby was eliminated as an option on new electrical goods that prevent a significant waste of energy. It needn't be as radical as that - perhaps regulation could stipulate that standby had to time out and switch off the appliance after half an hour.

In discussing climate change

Posted by James Montgomery on 16/01/2007 - 12:56

In discussing climate change there is a huge amount of disinformation in the media. This is not due to scientists scaremongering but due to terrible journalism. Journalists tend to read the abstract of a scientific paper and cherry pick the most worrying figures.

Due to the huge skepticism around climate change it is important when reporting conclusions to explain levels of possible error or how simulations were run.

Almost all of the published papers which criticize climate change have at their routes funding from the oil and gas industry however, a huge number of papers are government funded which could imply impartiality.

Does every little bit help?

Posted by BenHouchen on 15/01/2007 - 23:06

I am a second year student studying law and am facinated by politics, national and international and I think climate change and the environment is going to play a central role in many national governments in the future, more so than it is at present. Climate change is a sleeping giant, that is if it hasn't already been awakened by the increasing media attention it has attracted over recent times. I suggest this because although there seems to be a move towards being "environmentally friendly" people generally are giving lip service to it rather than taking it as seriously as it ought to. There are many initiatives by governments aimed at trying to reduce things such as carbon emissions, which as I understand are a leading cause in global warming. Such examples of these are suggestions made in Britain to tax cars for distance travelled aiming to reduce travel to essential cases.

Selflessness?

Posted by Emma Campbell on 12/01/2007 - 17:23

Chris said... "I believe reducing our dependancy on coal, oil, and gas is paramount to our childrens future."

Do you think people will be willing to make personal sacrifices when they themselves are unlikely to see the result, though? I know Tony Blair's recent comments have shocked a lot of people, when he said it was "impractical" to expect people to stop or even cut down on flying abroad for holidays. But it's so hard to make changes when, as reports have pointed out, the next 30 years are spoken for in terms of the damage we've already done. It will be decades before changes we make now even take effect.

Climate change

Posted by chris.mackin on 12/01/2007 - 12:16

Dear All,

My name is Chris Mackin, I am a member of EYPUK and I study in Edinburgh university, with European Studies as my main subject area. I have been browsing through the comments thus far in this discussion and would like to raise some points.

First of all, with regards to what Rich(ard) has said, even if the research statistics, media stories, official government and parliamentary releases, and European Commission green papers are simply scaremongering (which personally I dont believe they are) should we not be striving for a way to preserve our natural resources in order to be able to sustain our planet and provide our children with as good an existence as we have at the moment? It is with this in mind that I wholeheartedly support what Mr Avery has said, as I believe reducing our dependancy on coal, oil, and gas is paramount to our childrens future.

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