Alessandro Foglietta, on behalf of the UEN Group. – (IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to thank Mrs Ferreira for her excellent work.

Taking global responsibility to combat climate change is a crucial task that has to be achieved at various levels: not just in the world of enterprises and institutions, but among individuals as well. As European citizens, we can substantially reduce our ecological footprint and achieve major results simply by means of small measures, including our purchasing choices, that can have a global and significant impact. The Member States can encourage, or make it easier for, people to choose ecological products through market-based instruments.

As well as promoting research into new technologies it is important to ensure that these technologies are made available to consumers and disseminated widely enough to bring about environmental benefits for the community. It is a pity that 16 countries representing the planet’s largest economies, meeting in Paris on 16 and 18 April, did not manage to reach agreement on a joint resolution aiming to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050.

However, we are hopeful that the subsequent negotiations in Kobe and Hokkaido will lead to more success in this area, especially as I believe that climate change has to be combated at a global level; otherwise, it will merely place a heavy burden on European enterprises causing them to become less competitive than their rivals from outside Europe without achieving the aim of an environmental improvement at global level.

We have to use market-based instruments as economic levers if we are to move towards environmentally friendly production systems that are sustainable in the long term; in that respect, I welcome the Commission’s Green Paper. The European Union has to foster the dissemination in the Member States of market-based instruments that make it possible to internalise the environmental costs of products and to promote energy efficiency and the thermal insulation of buildings. I consider that it is essential for the European Union to achieve the goal of 20% of consumption from renewable sources by 2020.