Verbatim report of proceedings

Thursday, 25 November 2010 - Strasbourg

Explanations of vote

Text tabled : B7-0616/2010

  Maria do Céu Patrão Neves (PPE), in writing. – (PT) The climate change conference in Cancún (COP 16) is crucial for all Europeans and for people all over the world. We need a responsible and ambitious policy at this level from all political players. The European Union has a key role and must lead ambitions on climate change.

In view of this, I voted against Parliament’s resolution as I believe that the targets it sets out are not ambitious enough. Indeed, I cannot accept a target above 1.5 °C in a future comprehensive international post-2012 agreement in South Africa, given the latest developments in science. Regarding the commitments on reducing emissions, the increase must also remain below 1.5 °C, which requires that global greenhouse gas emissions peak by 2015 at the latest and are reduced by at least 50% as compared with 1990 by 2050, and continue to decline thereafter.

These are not mere percentages, but targets that have been scientifically researched as possible and vital in order to create a decisive turning point in the path that we have gone down towards the destruction of significant parts of our planet’s biodiversity.