Over 70 MEPs from 25 EU countries across almost all political groups have indicated their readiness to take a leadership role in the climate debate in the European Parliament.
These forward-thinking MEPs all signed CAN Europe’s Climate Pledge and were elected or re-elected to the European Parliament this week. [1] By signing our Climate Pledge, they have committed to tackling climate change during their terms of office and ushering in the economic, health and energy security benefits this action would bring.
“We are pleased to see that there is a significant number of MEPs who will work to keep climate change at the heart of the European agenda,” said Wendel Trio of CAN Europe “It is now critical that the European Parliament gets quickly up to speed on the work the EU must do before a global climate agreement can be signed in 2015.”
Earlier this year, the European Parliament proved itself once again to have more climate ambition than its counterpart, the European Commission, by voting for three binding climate targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions, energy efficiency and renewables. As elected officials, MEPs listened to their constituencies, the majority of whom resoundingly called for increased climate action in Europe. [2] CAN Europe will work closely with MEPs during the coming term to ensure that the Parliament’s more progressive stance on climate change is maintained.
The growth of the EU skeptic parties in this election will not necessarily adversely affect EU climate policy. CAN Europe’s analysis of the votes on crucial climate and energy issues of the last five years shows that many of the existing skeptics do not participate in votes [3], leaving us with the same challenge as ever: motivating ‘climate friendly’ MEPs in all parties to support adequate climate legislation.
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Contacts:
Wendel Trio, CAN Europe Director, +32 473 170 887, wendel@caneurope.org
Matt Keys, CAN Europe Communications Officer, matthew@caneurope.org, +32 2 894 46 73
Notes:
[1] Based on data available on 28 May 2014, 70 MEPs who signed CAN Europe’s climate pledge had been re-elected to Parliament. Over 450 MEP candidates representing the five biggest political groups in the European Parliament signed the pledge. See interactive EU map here: https://caneurope.org/voteforclimateaction/index.php?gktab=4#pledgemap
[2] A recent Eurobarometer survey shows 9 out of 10 Europeans recognize climate change as a “very serious” or “serious” threat and that 4 out of 5 agree that fighting climate change can boost the economy and jobs in Europe. http://ec.europa.eu/clima/citizens/support/docs/report_2014_en.pdf
[3] This analysis is available in CAN Europe’s Climate Scorecards: https://caneurope.org/voteforclimateaction/index.php?gktab=3
