This week a delegation from the European Parliament's Environment and Industry committees met members of the US Congress and other stakeholders in Washington DC to discuss climate and energy issues with a view to the International Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. Today, Thursday (29/10), at the conclusion of the visit, Environment Committee Chairman Jo Leinen (S&D, DE) made the following statement:

"We welcome the changes in attitude towards climate change and all the efforts in the right direction made by the US: efforts at Administration level, at State level and at local level. The US and the EU, as leading economic forces in the world, have to show their responsibility for stabilizing the temperature rise to 2 degree Celsius.

We therefore need to do more:

- more in terms of ambitious reduction targets (the IPCC asked for a 25-40% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020 compared to 1990 levels);

- more in terms of financing adaptation and mitigation in developing countries (the estimates are 100 billion euros per year by 2020).

We hope that the US Senate will follow the House’s example and adopt as soon as possible a cap and trade bill. The American cap and trade system could then be linked to the European cap and trade system (ETS) in the near future. That would pave the way to a transatlantic carbon market, and ultimately to a global carbon market.

The US and the EU, as leading economic forces, should closely cooperate in the breakthrough of sustainable technologies, such as clean energy, energy storage technologies, batteries technologies and greater energy efficiency.

We are looking forward to working hand in hand with the US to achieve ambitious goals. We need to act now. The Earth is setting our deadlines, not the internal political agendas."

Over the course of three days, members of the delegation met Senator Boxer, Senator Bingaman, Senator Merkley, Senator Whitehouse, Senator Lautenberg, Senator Benett, Congressman Sensenbrenner, Congresswoman B. Markey, Congressmen from the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, Congressmen from the EU Caucus, US Administration and representatives from think tanks and NGOs.

Members of the EP delegation
Jo LEINEN (S&D, DE), chair of Environment Committee

Elisabetta GARDINI (EPP, IT)

Vladko Todorov PANAYOTOV (ALDE, BG)

 Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL)

Bairbre DE BRÚN (GUE/NGL, UK)

Anna ROSBACH (EFD, DK)

Kriton ARSENIS (S&D, EL)

The European Parliament will also be sending a delegation to Copenhagen in December.

(European Parliament, 29/10/2009)