23/11/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC), PACE rapporteur on climate change, today called on the leaders of the United States, China and India to personally take part in the Copenhagen climate change conference in December. “These talks are vital for the future of the planet. These three countries can make the difference between success and failure. It is vital that their leaders are there, alongside the 60 other presidents and prime ministers who have already said they are coming,” he said.
16/11/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The head of PACE’s Environment Committee, speaking on behalf of PACE President Lluis Maria de Puig, today encouraged Council of Europe governments to sign the new additional protocol to the European Charter of Local Self-Government, giving citizens the right to participate in the affairs of a local authority.
14/10/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Local authorities will play a “crucial role” in translating the words of any coming global climate treaty into action and achieving the “deep and early cuts” in emissions that are needed, the Chair of PACE’s Environment Committee told local and regional elected representatives today.
13/10/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The reference framework on regional democracy that has been proposed by governments is a “poor substitute” for a full European Charter of Regional Democracy, and the Parliamentary Assembly will “continue the battle” to achieve the stronger text, the Chair of PACE’s Environment Committee told the Council of Europe Congress today. In an address to its plenary session on behalf of PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig, Alan Meale (United Kingdom, SOC) said he “deeply regretted” the decision to draft only a reference framework, instead of a Charter equivalent to the successful European Charter of Local Self-Government.
30/09/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The debate on the green economy in Europe and the United States held yesterday evening by PACE and the Alsace Region clearly underlined the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the earliest opportunity – between 50% and 85% by 2050 – as well as the idea that sustainable growth depends on the involvement of business. John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC), PACE rapporteur on climate change, drew attention to the vitally important nature of the negotiations due at the Copenhagen Conference in December.
21/09/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The right to ‘live in a healthy and viable environment’ should be enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights, according to PACE Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs. PACE’s Rapporteur on Climate Change, former UK Deputy Prime Minister and Kyoto Protocol negotiator John Prescott is backing the call as part of its New Earth Deal campaign to secure a fairer deal at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.
04/09/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Expressing great concern about growing marine pollution, the Environment Committee believes a legal and institutional framework for a new ocean governance needs to be worked out and proposes establishing an integrated maritime policy based on the European Union’s “Blue Book”. According to PACE’s rapporteur Manuela de Melo (Potuglal, SOC), as the Council of Europe includes non-EU European countries and has some major coastal countries from other continents as observers, it “has a key part to play in implementing an integrated maritime policy”.
04/09/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
In a report adopted today in Paris by the PACE Committee on the Environment, Bernard Marquet (Monaco, ALDE) stresses the importance of recognising access to water and sanitation as a fundamental human right. According to the rapporteur, who describes in particular the worrying situation of the Maghreb, a real water culture should become widespread, founded on integrated management that accommodates the economic, ecological and social aspects. The rapporteur also calls for inter-regional and transfrontier co-operation on water issues.
04/09/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
An additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, which would recognise the right to a healthy, sustainable environment, has become necessary according to José Mendes Bota (Portugal, EPP/CD), the author of a report on this issue adopted today by the Environment Committee. The inclusion of this right in the Convention would in fact enable the Court to rule directly on violations of that fundamental right, and is a natural extension of the Council of Europe’s role in environmental protection.
04/09/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
“If the continuity of the Kyoto Protocol is to be ensured, an ambitious, binding new agreement will have to be concluded at the UN Climate Change conference this December in Copenhagen,” according to John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC) in a report adopted today by the PACE Committee on the Environment. Developed countries must accept their historical responsibility for CO2 emissions since the dawn of the industrial age, the Rapporteur believes, and initiate deep and early cuts in their emissions according to the “polluter pays” principle.
26/08/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
A campaign called the ‘New Earth Deal’ is being launched today in London, with the support of PACE’s Environment Committee, to push for a global climate change deal at Copenhagen in which richer countries should do more. PACE’s rapporteur on climate change John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC), a former Deputy Prime Minister who took part in the Kyoto Protocol negotiations, said developed countries must “carry a greater share of the burden of reducing emissions” because of their historic responsibility for past emissions: “They must now recognise the central principle that the polluter pays.”
22/06/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The Committee on Economic Affairs and Development, meeting in Paris at the OECD headquarters on 19 June 2009, unanimously adopted a preliminary draft report on the activities of the OECD in 2008-2009. The committee had invited Corinne Lepage, former French Minister of the Environment, and Enrico Giovannini, chief statistician of OECD, to discuss the report "Wealth, welfare and wellbeing: how to reconcile them in a changing Europe?" (Konstantinos Vrettos, Greece, SOC), and raised the major economic challenges, but also the environmental, social and democratic challenges, that western societies would face in the near future.