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.

It is fitting that this discussion should represent the beginning and not the end of the climate change debate. Climate change is a long-term problem that will require to be constantly addressed for the foreseeable future, and as such the debate cannot end here. I hope this forum has sparked your interest in this topic, and maybe even encourage you to take action, but most of all I hope that I will persuade you to keep the debate going.