GUE to Poznan

Brussels, 08/12/2008

GUE/NGL delegation in Poznán for UN climate change conference
MEPs Bairbre de Brún (Ireland), Roberto Musacchio (Italy) and Jens Holm (Sweden) from the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group are part of a 33-member European Parliament delegation heading off this week to the United Nations Climate Change Conference which started on 1 December in Poznán, Poland.

This two-week meeting marks the half-way stage in negotiations from the agreement on the Bali Road Map in 2007 aiming to reach an ambitious and effective international response to climate change. The deal is due to be clinched in Copenhagen at the end of 2009 and should take effect in 2013, the year after the Kyoto Protocol expires.

The EP delegation will have regular briefings with Commissioner Dimas and the head of EU negotiators. The EP delegation will also organise two side events on the state of play on the climate/energy package due to be adopted during next plenary session in Strasbourg in mid-December.

GUE/NGL activities in Poznan
GUE/NGL MEPs will be engaging in bilateral meetings with representatives from Polish and other European left parties, NGOs and individuals and interest groups and will be participating in or observing discussions organised by the Parliament between international negotiators and MEPs, particularly with the US President Elect Barack Obama’s transition team, which will be in Poznan, and may reveal elements of the incoming US administration’s broad policy agenda and priorities on climate change there. 

Roberto Musacchio, Vice-Chair of the Parliament’s Temporary Committee on Climate Change, is co-chairing a working group on technology/energy organised by the Parliament which will be meeting at various stages during the five days.

All these events will give our MEPs an opportunity to meet players and exchange ideas, formally and informally, about the future international agreement, to explain their positions and make their views more widely known.

GUE/NGL on climate change
The GUE/NGL group believes that any future regime should be equitable and based on historical responsibility and have as its basis a ”common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities”.

The group opposes any move towards an agreement based on the lowest common denominator.  It believes that developing a new green economy is our most promising path out of the present crisis and that green technology can be the basis of a new industrial revolution.

Above all, the group reiterates its ongoing commitment to less developed countries and will do all in its power to ensure that the developing world does not pay the price for the historic actions of industrialised countries. It advocates help for the poorest nations and most vulnerable communities to adapt to climate change, the promotion of growth and the eradication of poverty with a view to sustainable development, assistance to developing countries in the deployment of sustainable and efficient technologies by means of adequate financing and capacity building measures.

GUE/NGL & tropical deforestation
The issue of tropical deforestation, which is high on the agenda in Poznan, is another of the group’s concerns and it advocates performance-based incentives to avoid deforestation as part of the future climate change regime. In this respect, the GUE/NGL delegation will be meeting with representatives of indigenous peoples from Latin America, whose livelihoods are threatened by tropical deforestation.

GUE/NGL & the funding question
Estimations of the financial resources needed for both mitigation and adaptation and the financial mechanisms which need to be put in place to pay the costs of climate change are also high on the agenda in Poznan. The GUE/NGL delegation will be following closely the preparations for an agreement on funding being hammered out by negotiators as well as the European Commission’s proposals on EU funding, including earmarking of additional funds gained through emissions auctioning schemes. 
In advance of a possible intermediary climate change conference, which may take place between now and the Copenhagen conference scheduled for December 2009, the GUE/NGL firmly believes that the current financial crisis cannot be used as an excuse by the EU leaders not to honour their commitments on climate change, but rather to see climate change as part of the solution, an opportunity to make industry greener and to create new jobs.

GUE/NGL press contact in Poznán: Gay Kavanagh +32  473 842 320