Debate: Devastating Bushfires in Australia and other extreme weather events as a consequence of Climate Change
Date: MONDAY, 13 JANUARY 2020
Speaker: Maroš Šefčovič
Language: EN

As I said at the beginning, I believe that, after this debate, we can say that we as Europeans clearly send our support and our solidarity to Australia. As highlighted by Madam Šojdrová, it’s very important that this message is also spread across Europe, namely that we are ready to help, especially any country in such dramatic distress. At the same time, many of you highlighted the fact that what’s happening in Australia is just the consequence of global climate change, that this situation was caused by us humans, and that we need a global effort to take care of it. The interventions by Ms Bentele, Ms Dalli and Mr Bijoux appealed to us in the Commission – but also to our global partners – to make sure that we do this collectively and that we will have that consistent and strong global effort. We need to make sure that the Paris Agreement is implemented globally by all the key powers, as Mr Hajšel said, and to look for ways in which we can make that important transition in Europe socially fair so that we can demonstrate to other parts of the world that this is possible: that you can grow, that you can cut CO2 emissions and that you can do it in a socially fair manner. I think that, if we see that the world is not respecting our pace, we will have to look for new mechanisms – as was suggested in our previous discussions – to make sure that we push other countries in that direction if they do not respond to our efforts. Let’s consider mechanisms like the carbon adjustment mechanism or other measures to make sure that other industries in parts of the world outside Europe will also try to produce as cleanly as we do in the European Union.  I think that this discussion has also just reminded us of the fact that we in Europe have also not been spared the dramas and tragedies brought by climate change. Let’s just look back at some of the dramatic events which honourable Members have reminded us about – the tragic fires in Portugal, Sweden and Greece – and let’s be sure that we will not relent in making sure that our readiness and preparedness gets much better every single year to come. We need to simply make sure that we will improve the existing wildfire and forest management strategy, complement the fire suppression strategies with increased awareness, preparedness and prevention, and combine these short—term measures with long-term adaptations, which is so important, especially for forest management. The EU strategy on adaptation, which was adopted in 2013, was aimed exactly at that: to make sure that we would enhance our preparedness and resilience to the current and future impact on climate change, especially by the climate proofing of key vulnerable sectors such as those that I have already mentioned. All this would come under the new umbrella of the new ambitious strategy, which will be the flagship project of this Commission and, I believe, of this House. This will be the European Green Deal. Mr Knotek referred to the Copernicus Programme and I’m very glad to say that, yes, we are the biggest provider of this data, of the imagery which is very often key for fighting fires from California to Australia. We are, of course, going to develop that further and invest in early warning systems, such as the European Forest Fire Information System, which are critical for managing the crisis, as we are discussing today. We have improved our civil protection capacities, but we know that we need to do more. I would agree with Ms Müller and Mr Kokkalis that we have to permanently look for ways in which we can make it better, make it more fireproof and be properly prepared for all contingencies which might head in our direction in the future. To conclude, I would like to say that the best response we could give to this crisis is to be very focused and very determined in introducing the European Green Deal and demonstrating to other parts of the world that it’s possible to do it. We know how to do it and we are ready to share our experience, and of course in all that we would count on the support of this House – of you, of the European Parliament.