Verbatim report of proceedings

Thursday, 20 April 2023 - Strasbourg

IPCC report on Climate Change: a call for urgent additional action (debate)

  Niklas Nienaß (Verts/ALE). – Madam President, well first of all, it’s a pity that the Council is not here, because the Member States are the ones that have agreed to the Paris Agreement and that are legally bound to take action. Nonetheless, we need to focus on what we as the EU can do. And sorry for you being the only Commissioner here, but the Commission is not doing enough.

Why do we not use the power of the EU for the common agricultural policy to have an agriculture policy that is protecting the climate and the biodiversity? Why do you keep speaking about it but are not acting? Why do we not use the power of the EU with the biggest single market to use trading agreements for the better, for the climate and for biodiversity? Why, again, is the Commission not acting? We hear too much and we see too little. And honestly, this is just frustrating for me, for a whole generation, because we focus on the future. The question of the climate change is the question of how a society will live in future. The question of biodiversity is if we will live in future, and the current generation in power is just doing everything to ignore the point, and we as a future generation get anxiety of it and have a fear of the future. And that is on your back. Sorry to say that to all of you.