European Parliament’s environment committee debated the funding of climate adaptation measures
European Parliament
Monday, 01 February 2010 16:37
On 1st April 2009, the European Commission published a White Paper on adapting to climate change. This document underlined the importance of funding for effective adaptation measures. This point has been debated by the European Parliament’s environment committee on last Tuesday (26 January). The main issue that MEPs addressed has been the allocation of future climate adaptation funds…
The Commission’s White Paper explains the need of an adaptation strategy at EU level for the European continent, highlighting the region’s vulnerability. The objective is to provide an overall coordinating strategy to tackle this threat, which implies to integrate adaptation measures into EU policies. In this White Paper, the Commission advocates a two-phases approach, starting from more research and analysis of adaptation options until 2012 and then turning to the implementation of “a comprehensive EU adaptation strategy from 2013”. The White Paper identified several options – ranging from the current multi-annual financial framework (2007-2013), the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP) to insurances and Market Based Instruments (MBIs)- for funding adaptation measures.
These options have been debated for the first time at the European Parliament on Tuesday 26 January. Vittorio Prodi (S&D, IT), who was Rapporteur of a draft resolution on adaptation on 11 December 2009 and Theodoros Skylakakis (EPP, GR) agreed that revenues from the EU ETS (Emission Trading Scheme) should be auctioned to help finance adaptation to climate change in Europe. Turning to the needed data on adaptation, Vittorio Prodi stressed that “at first glance”, this data seems too “far off”, ENDS Europe reported on Wednesday 27 January.
In line with last year’s White Paper, members of the environment committee also discussed the important issue of “mainstreaming” climate adaptation into EU policies such as environmental impact assessment, agriculture and fisheries. Mr. Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA, NL) asked whether climate adaptation was sufficiently integrated into other policy fields. For her part, Ms. Francoise Grossetête (EPP, FR) suggested to include adaptation measures in structural funds, so that member states would have to take the issue seriously.
These options have been debated for the first time at the European Parliament on Tuesday 26 January. Vittorio Prodi (S&D, IT), who was Rapporteur of a draft resolution on adaptation on 11 December 2009 and Theodoros Skylakakis (EPP, GR) agreed that revenues from the EU ETS (Emission Trading Scheme) should be auctioned to help finance adaptation to climate change in Europe. Turning to the needed data on adaptation, Vittorio Prodi stressed that “at first glance”, this data seems too “far off”, ENDS Europe reported on Wednesday 27 January.
In line with last year’s White Paper, members of the environment committee also discussed the important issue of “mainstreaming” climate adaptation into EU policies such as environmental impact assessment, agriculture and fisheries. Mr. Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA, NL) asked whether climate adaptation was sufficiently integrated into other policy fields. For her part, Ms. Francoise Grossetête (EPP, FR) suggested to include adaptation measures in structural funds, so that member states would have to take the issue seriously.
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