EP President Jerzy Buzek met with representatives of the 'Green 10' group, representing environmental NGOs active at EU level. Five topics were debated:
►(1) The future of European energy policies and the role renewable energy can play in it;
►(2) The EU climate policy and the need to move to more ambitious emission reduction targets, also in the context of the Cancun negotiations;
►(3) The role of biodiversity and ecosystems in building the new resource efficient, green economy; lessons from the TEEB study and problems with the way the EU 2020 targets tackle ecosystems;
►(4) The role of the European Parliament in the new era of extended co-decision, in particular as concerns the budget and the CAP;
►(5) The role of the EP as watchdog on enforcement of environmental legislation, and how the Parliament can improve that role.

During the discussion the main focus was put on questions of climate change and energy. The representatives of the 'Green 10' NGOs underlined the need for environmental impact assessments and the necessity for a more stringent implementation of EU environmental laws. They also pointed out that the type of energy we use also decides on jobs and growth. The EP should push the EU further, since investments in renewable energy were a win-win-win situation for the growth, jobs and the environment. They asked for more ambitious national energy efficiency plans. The NGOs also supported more ambitious energy efficiency targets for the time beyond 2020.

In their point of view there was no time to loose to build economic bridges between the old and new energy sources. Internationally, the NGOs argued, the EU had lost credibility due to the ongoing internal disputes on its green house gas (GHG) emissions targets and pleaded for a move to the 30% target for the year 2020. According to their figures this would create 70 billion euro from ETS auctioning and would be beneficiary also in terms of health costs. Minus 30% though would still not be enough to stop global warming, for which minus 40% were necessary.
On the global scale the EU behaved too complacent, according to their analysis: China did not only open a new coal power plant every week but also a new wind mill every hour and already overtook the EU as biggest investor in the latter. The EU had to made use of its financial resources to implement the 2020 targets for climate, energy and resource efficiency as well as for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Factoring in the arising needs in these areas could help regain credibility for the EU budget by citizens.

Concerning energy policy President Buzek highlighted the special EU directive for renewable energy sources, the necessity for energy efficiency and energy savings but also the need for the continued use fossil fuels in a transitory period. He cautioned to expect it to be easy to go beyond a 20% reduction target by 2020 and underlined that in his point of view the key would be the development of new technologies. For the EU to be able to agree on higher binding targets it would be necessary for other states as well to accept reduction targets and to submit themselves to reporting and verifying mechanisms.

The NGO representatives also mentioned that energy and cost savings would help convince citizens. Most of these savings could be realised not on the production side of energy but on the demand side. They also highlighted the benefits from environmental regulations, e.g. for desulphurisation or catalysts in cars, which brought a technological breakthrough at the time. With a clear shift to renewable energies five times as many jobs in the sector could be created and the money would be spent on them instead on the transport of fuels.

At the meeting participated representatives of following NGOs:
- BirdLife International;
- Climate Action Network Europe;
- European Environmental Bureau;
- Greenpeace European Unit;
- Friends of Nature International;
- European Federation for Transport and Environment;
- World Wide Fund.

EU Civil Society Contact Group alliance: Green 10

Green 10