Toespraak Dimas nadat overeenstemming was bereikt over de luchtkwaliteit (en)

SPEECH/06/624

Member of the European Commission, Responsible for Environment

Climate Change and Air Quality: Press Statement at the Environment Council

Environment Council

Luxembourg, 23 October 2006

Air quality directive

Today's political agreement on the air quality directive is especially important progress.

Every year 370,000 people in Europe are dying prematurely from diseases linked to air pollution - 350,000 of them because of the fine dust particles known as PM2.5.

We have to reduce these shocking figures, and for that we need an ambitious directive.

That is what the Commission has proposed, and I am glad to say that the Council's position fully endorses both our approach and our level of ambition.

The directive will bring in limits on PM2.5 concentrations for the first time. It will also give Member States some needed flexibility in areas where they are having difficulty meeting the existing air quality standards.

But the Council has acted responsibly in not weakening the existing standards themselves and in strictly limiting any time extensions for achieving them to no more than 3 years.

That is the right balance, and I hope the European Parliament will come round to this view when it gives the directive its second reading.]

Climate change

On climate change I welcome the Council's clear and ambitious position for the Nairobi conference next month, which will be first world climate change conference held in sub-Saharan Africa.

Appropriately the Nairobi meeting will have a particular focus on issues that are of greatest importance to developing countries, for example their need for help in facing up to the enormous challenge of adapting to climate change.

We must also help Africa develop and implement more emission-reduction projects under the Clean Development Mechanism. The CDM is triggering a huge wave of technology transfer to developing nations and it is essential for Africa's development that African countries share fully in this process.

Discussions on the vital issue of post-2012 global action to combat climate change will continue in Nairobi. This process started in May and we expect to make further progress at this meeting, but it is too early to expect any breakthroughs.

I would just like to underline that the credibility of the EU's global leadership on climate change depends on being able to deliver on our commitments to reduce emissions.

The second national allocation plans under the EU emissions trading scheme are an important tool for ensuring this. But if Member States put more allowances into the market than are needed to cover real emissions, the scheme would become pointless. I cannot let that happen.

We are busy analysing the NAPs we have received and I anticipate it will be several more weeks before we are in a position to take any decisions.

But I have to say I am disappointed that many of the NAPS we have received so far do not seem to take sufficient account of the real level of emissions from installations in the scheme. Indeed, taken together, the first 17 NAPs notified to us propose an emissions cap that is about 15% above the actual emissions level in those Member States last year.

I've said repeatedly that the Commission will be tough but fair in our evaluations of the NAPs. It is clear that we will need to be.

Toxic waste

Lastly, the Council has adopted a good set of conclusions for the Basel Convention conference next month which signal a strong commitment to improve the enforcement of our legislation on waste shipments.

After the tragedy of the toxic waste that was dumped in the Ivory Coast, better enforcement of our rules is essential if we are to prevent more similar disasters in future. What happened in Ivory Coast was a crime that must not be repeated.

As well as better enforcement, we may also need new legislation, for instance to ensure that sea ports around the EU carry out adequate monitoring and checking of waste shipments.

And I strongly believe that we need to introduce effective criminal sanctions. We have to ensure that the people involved in the illegal trade in toxic waste receive the punishment they deserve. I have instructed my services to look into how this can be done.

Thank you.