Floods in Italy: EU must increase regions' resilience & set ambitious climate change goals
The President of the Committee of the Regions has expressed his condolences to all those devastated by the recent flooding in Italy and called on the EU to step-up its efforts to support local and regional authorities in preparing against future natural disasters. President Michel Lebrun, speaking in Bologna during an event organised by the Committee and the Regions and the Italian Region of Emilia-Romagna , also reiterated the Committee's recent demand for the EU to take the lead in tackling climate change by setting ambitious targets ahead of the UN talks in Paris next year.
"Flooding is becoming far too a common occurrence in Europe. Not long after the floods in the UK and the Western Balkans, Italy and its communities have been tragically hit. Our climate is changing and we need to prepare for the worst. We urgently need to make our cities and our regions more resilient to natural disasters if we are to minimise the future impact on our communities", President Lebrun said. The Committee of the Regions - the EU's assembly of local and regional authorities - recently adopted an opinion reacting to a European Commission proposal on how the EU can meet its international obligations on building resilience to disasters. Led by the Committee's member Cllr Harvey Siggs (UK/ECR), the report notes that over the last decade disasters caused more than 80,000 deaths with a cost of around €95bn in the EU alone. The Committee argues that Europe's local authorities must be supported to improve coordination and deal with the aftershock of disasters.
Speaking on behalf of the Italian Presidency of the EU, the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Sandro Gozi, stressed the need to use new EU investment to help fight climate change, "We will monitor the deployment of the plan proposed by the incoming European Commission's President, Jean-Claude Juncker, to make sure that additional resources are invested in renewable energy and climate change". Mr Gozi reiterated the Italian Presidency's commitment to exclude from the national debt calculation investment matching EU structural funds, a measure called for by the Committee of the Regions. In this regard he said, "We will fight to ensure that co-financing of projects, supported by EU cohesion policy, will not be included in the debt calculation: it would mean clipping the wings of Member States and regions that are committed for a greener Europe".
“For too many years adverse weather conditions have turned into disasters across the EU including in Italy. In most cases this is the result of inadequate prevention policies", added Emilia-Romagna Region's Vice-President Simonetta Saliera (IT/PES) who hosted the seminar in partnership with the Committee of the Regions' Environment, Climate and Energy Commission. She added that, "We all need to step-up our efforts and improve our understanding of how climate is changing in order to adjust intervention strategies and tools. This is exactly the goal of initiatives such as today's seminar, hosted by Emilia-Romagna, a region that, despite EURO 1.7 billion cut in central government financial investment, did not give up prevention policies".
President Lebrun also reiterated the Committee's recent call for the EU to set a "winning trio" of 2030 EU climate and energy targets. By 2030, it should agree to a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels (as opposed to a 40% objective proposed by the European Commission); 40% share of renewable energies, based on national targets (as opposed to the proposed objective of at least 27%); and 40% reduction in primary energy consumption compared with 2005 achieved through efficiency gains, also based on national targets (as opposed to the proposed 30% objective).