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EU Parliament pledges to cut carbon footprint…but keeps its dual seat (31/10/08)

October 30, 2008 at 11:50 pm Leave a comment

The European Parliament has decided to instigate a plan to reduce its carbon footprint emissions by 30 per cent by the year 2020. An in-house study published last week has outlined how the institution can achieve the target by using renewable energy, reducing energy needs, and offsetting emissions. A strategic plan based on the study will be put forward by the beginning of next year.
The 30 per cent target goes well beyond the overall EU objective to cut greenhouse gas by 20 per cent by 2020. But the study compiled by the European Parliament Bureau notes that already the institution’s shift to the use of ‘green electricity’ only has reduced emissions by 17 per cent. The measures envisaged to reduce carbon dioxide include promoting the efficient use of energy, water and paper; reducing waste, incorporating environmental guidelines into planning procedures and training staff to change their behaviour.
However laudable the Parliament’s objective, it is bound to meet with a cynical response from the majority of MEPs opposed to the institution’s dual seat arrangement. The relocation of the parliament from Brussels to Strasbourg for four days a month not only costs an extra €200 million a year; it also creates over 20,000 additional tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Although the Strasbourg seat is accepted as an emblem of reconciliation between France and Germany, critics say what was once a positive symbol has now become a negative sign of money-wasting and bureaucracy. More than 1.2 million people have signed an online petition, www.oneseat.eu, set up in 2006 by a Swedish MEP, demanding a single seat for the European Parliament. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said that the Strasbourg seat is ‘non-negotiable’, however it’s clear that as long as the ‘travelling circus’ continues between Brussels and Strasbourg, it will undermine any environmental stance that the Parliament decides to take.

Entry filed under: Environment and the EU, The EU institutions. Tags: .