Sumario: 28 May 2008, Bonn - Speech by José Manuel Durão Barroso, President of the European Commission, "Biodiversity: We have a Moral Obligation" at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity
Chancellor,
Prime Minister,
President of the UN General Assembly,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to start by thanking Germany, and Chancellor Angela Merkel in particular, for organising such an excellent event and for having invited me to take part in today's opening of the high level segment. The Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity plays a critical role in explaining the central importance of biodiversity. For all life on earth.
The loss of biological diversity both within Europe and globally poses a grave threat. And this is being exacerbated by climate change. It threatens our life and natural environment and thus, the foundation of our quality of life. But biodiversity also underpins our economies which constitute the much more direct life-support system on which human well-being depends. And we cannot afford to deplete our natural capital in this way.
That is why biodiversity is at the centre of public interest. It is thanks to the Convention on Biological Diversity that we have global commitments to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. It is crucial that this Conference continues the work this week by agreeing to concrete actions to reach ambitious commitments.
The European Union is committed to putting a stop to the loss of biodiversity in Europe by 2010, as the Commission made clear in its communication adopted on World Biodiversity Day in May 2006. Our proposals set out a detailed action plan with concrete measures, and outlining the responsibilities of both EU institutions and Member States.
Good progress has been made. We have made a number of important legislative changes in the European Union in recent years. Since the adoption of the Birds Directive in 1979, Europe has developed a number of specific laws which have created a comprehensive legal system aiming at safeguarding biodiversity.
But, despite these efforts, biodiversity loss continues at an alarming rate - both in Europe and the rest of the world. Important ecosystems continue to be destroyed. The time has come therefore to re-double our efforts. The "business as usual" approach has no chance of achieving the target of significantly reducing global biodiversity loss by 2010. In particular we need to maximise synergies between climate change measures and biodiversity.
Just as the link with energy helped promote climate change as a major political issue, the link between protecting nature and protecting our climate can make the world realise that protecting biodiversity is not an optional extra.
The integration of biodiversity into policy areas in developing countries is a challenge and a responsibility for developing countries themselves. But we cannot escape the reality that halting global biodiversity loss needs financial support. The European Union, through its external cooperation policies, actively supports developing countries in their efforts to reduce the loss of biodiversity. It is important that our partner countries respond by continuing to give adequate priority to halting
the loss of biodiversity in their own development programmes.
Let me now touch briefly on a number of specific important topics which are part of the agenda of the Conference this week.
Firstly, the protection of the world's forests is one of the pressing challenges that we have to face. Deforestation is one of the main drivers of species loss. Forests are important to welfare in many developing countries. And deforestation is responsible for approximately 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions - more than the entire emissions of the EU. This simple but clear fact shows that the challenge of deforestation is a global challenge and needs the promotion of a global solution. That
is why the contribution of this conference to the general debate is so important. If we can manage to find a way to stop deforestation, then there is an opportunity for a real "win-win-win" situation: protecting biodiversity, fighting poverty and making a major contribution to the fight against climate change.
Combating illegal logging and trade in illegally harvested timber products could make a sizeable contribution to addressing the problem of deforestation. The European Union for its part is negotiating a number of voluntary partnership agreements with timber producing countries to address the question of legality and is reflecting on further measures to ensure that illegal harvested products are not put on the European market.
The efforts of the European Union, in the context of our climate change and energy agenda are also going into the development of biofuel production and consumption. Biofuels can and must be part of the solution, not part of the problem. To that end we have made clear that the development of biofuels cannot be at any price: it must be sustainable, and must not jeopardize our efforts to protect biodiversity. We are already working at finding and defining criteria to reach this objective. Clear
contribution and guidance for these criteria to be defined from this Convention would offer the right international framework for all to respect.
A key part and objective of the European Union approach is to integrate biodiversity into all aspects of environmental legislation.
In this context, preserving the dynamism and vitality of our maritime regions has been one of the key priorities for the European Commission. The agreement during this meeting on a process leading to the clear identification of sites that would be eligible for being listed as marine protected areas will be an important milestone in achieving our commitment, agreed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to establish a global network of Marine Protected Areas by 2012. Considering the
growing evidence of destruction of vulnerable marine ecosystems, it is crucial that we act now in order to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of our marine environment.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Commission welcomes the proposals and the priorities that will be discussed and adopted by the Parties during this conference. I welcome also in particular the strong commitments announced today by Chancellor Merkel. These initiatives are in line with the efforts made by the European Union since its 2006 action plan. I hope others will follow these examples.
The time for action is now. 2010 is just around the corner. This Conference is critical to our chances of meeting our own targets. If all 191 parties to the Convention follow the path of Chancellor Merkel and work to turn their commitments on biodiversity into firm and tangible actions, we might still be able to show we mean business in our efforts to reduce biodiversity loss.
We must remember: extinction is forever. We cannot wait until the degradation of ecosystems reaches a point of no return. Scientists are not exaggerating when they refer to the 6th great planetary extinction.
We have to find a way of living in a sustainable harmony with nature. We have a moral obligation to be careful stewards of the planet for future generations.
Thank you.
| Arriba |
Estados Miembros de la Union Europea
Alertas por e-mail
Enviar por e-mail
Imprimir esta página