Tuesday, 10th January 2012
International Blue Carbon Policy Workshop - Keynote speech
The following speech was delivered at the open of the second annual Blue Carbon Policy Working Group at the European Parliament in Brussels.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to welcome you here in the European Parliament. I am happy and honored, as Chair of the EP Intergroup “Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development”, to host the second meeting of the Blue Carbon Policy Working Group.
I am Vice Chair of the Fisheries Committee and member of the Committee on Environment. You can therefore imagine how strong my interest in the blue carbon issue is. Oceans and climate have inextricable links. Thanks to the essential role in mitigating climate change, oceans make life on Earth possible. But oceans are also hard hit by global warming. Coming from Scotland where fisheries represents an important economic activity, I am particularly concerned by the impact of climate change on the distribution and abundance of fisheries resources. In Europe, we can notice that some species go further in the North to find cooler waters.
I would like to take this opportunity to mention the existence of PaCFA: the Global Partnership Climate, Fisheries and Aquaculture: an initiative aiming to look into the climate change interactions with global waters and living resources and their social and economic consequences. The European Bureau for Conservation and Development, which provides the Secretariat to the Intergroup jointly with IUCN, is an active member of this Partnership together with FAO, UNEP, UNDP and World Fish Centre etc.
Oceans ignoring borders, I am convinced that International cooperation is necessary to maintain and strengthen oceans as carbon sink and world lung. We have the strong obligation to avert marine and coastal biodiversity loss, to conserve and restore it not only for its intrinsic value but also for its ecological, economic and social benefits. I therefore welcome your initiative and I support it.
You are probably aware that the European Parliament is getting more powerful in the legislative process. We are co-legislators with the Council of Ministers when it comes to environmental matters. The European Parliament is a strategic place. The blue carbon issue receiving too little attention by the European institutions, I think it is important in terms of image and visibility to organize your second working group in our house and the symposium under the Intergroup “Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development”. It is the biggest and most influencial Intergroup with over 150 MEPs members coming from all political groups.
I am convinced that these two events will contribute to raising awareness on blue carbon so that oceans’ assets in mitigating climate change are further recognized and fully integrated in the EU climate change strategy and biodiversity policy.
Keep working closely with the European Parliament and be assured of my will to support your work as much as I can. I wish you a productive and successful meeting.
Struan Stevenson MEP
Chair of the EP Intergroup Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development
