Press release
Water, climate change and sustainable development
Environment - 30-01-2008 - 10:09
Committees
Committees
At the Climate Change Committee's Fourth Thematic session on Tuesday, MEPs and experts discussed the complex links between global warming and the world's water. Water scarcity, climate change and sustainable development, it was agreed, are issues which are closely linked and cannot be successfully tackled in isolation.
"Water is one of the sources of climate change, but it is also an indicator of climate change", said theme leader Cristina Gutiérrez-Cortines (EPP-ED, ES). "It is the resource which most effects human life”. In view of the growing scarcity of water, as she then added, “the process of adaptation is going to require a number of sacrifices and changes in our way of life.”
Water problems cannot be solved in isolation
UN Environment Programme (UNEP) official Kaveh Zahedi, speaking on behalf of UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, argued that "it is hard to draw a line between where water ends and climate change begins; and between where climate change ends and sustainable development begins." It was clear, he added, that without a far-reaching post-Kyoto climate change regime, "our ability to reach the Millennium Development Goals, as they relate to water and other issues, will be impossible." That said, "we cannot confine water in a box and address it with exclusively water related policies.”
Developing countries will not be the only ones to suffer water-related problems from climate change. Southern Europe, said Mr Zahedi, is due to become "especially vulnerable to droughts": rainfall in the region, he warned, may fall "by as much as 80% over the coming decades". Any sensible water policy for Europe and beyond, he concluded, "must include combating climate change, just as any sensible climate change policy must have water at its very core”.
Professor Riccardo Petrella, President of the European Research Institute on Water Policy, underlined the human dimension of global water scarcity by pointing out that "1.5 billion people have no access to drinkable water and 2.6 billion people don’t have access to a clean toilet. The ecological disaster is really a cultural disaster,” he said.
Agriculture, biofuels and climate change
During a panel discussion on "Sustainable development, land-use change and livestock", president of Ecosocial Forum Europe (and former EU commissioner) Franz Fischler turned to the role of agriculture in climate change. As he put it, “agriculture is partly responsible for climate change; it will be damaged by climate change; and it will profit from climate change.” Agriculture, he said, could also help "mitigate the effects of climate change". Biomass "will become a key raw material that will be able to replace oil or gas", provided, as Mr Fischler noted, that it is produced on a sustainable basis.
“I am surprised by the confidence [...] regarding biofuels," he then added. "We are a long way away from feasibility in the biofuel sector, even in economic terms. What we need now is a lot of research and development.” In the face of these uncertainties, Katerina Batzeli (PES, EL) asked how far the European Union was "obligated to get into the mentality of biofuels" in the first place?
Sustainability criteria for biofuels?
"Biofuels urgently need sustainability criteria", agreed Mr Zahedi, noting that "it can take 1000 litres of water to make 1 litre of biofuel.” Responding to a question from Vittorio Prodi (ALDE, IT) on what these criteria would cover, Mr Zahedi said: "we haven’t come to a conclusion". He added, however, that such criteria "will probably include" the need to avoid price increases for local commodities and to take account of biofuels' impact on biodiversity.
At the end of the debate, Ms Gutiérrez-Cortines pointed out the lack of awareness which still exists in some areas. “We need more science”, she emphasised, and “we need to find a common method of analysing our problems." EP climate change rapporteur Karl Heinz Florenz (EPP-ED, DE) cited the lack of effective implementation of existing water legislation: “We already have legislation: enforcement is what is difficult,” he said. “We don’t know everything," he concluded, "but we know enough to make a start.”
28/01/2008
Temporary Committee on Climate Change
In the chair : Guido Sacconi (PES, IT)
In the chair : Guido Sacconi (PES, IT)
REF.: 20080128IPR19733