The EPP at Copenhagen

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At the opening of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, the Chairman of the European People’s Party (EPP) Joseph Daul MEP, reaffirmed his group's objective: to limit the rise of the average annual global temperature to 2° above pre-industrial levels  - the so called 2°C Objective. The EPP also supports the establishment of binding targets for reductions of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in industrialised countries - with similar commitments for emerging economies - by 30% compared to 1990 by the year 2020.

Environmental concerns pervade every area of political policy these days, and nowhere is this more true than in those areas of governance that are concerned with trans-national issues.

The world’s attention is focussed on Copenhagen, and the EU is a major player in the climate change debate. The recent acknowledgement of the need to help developing economies to control their GHG emissions through economic and technical assistance has brought the issue into sharp focus: the time for talking is over, and now it is time to act.

Unfortunately, there is an element of "riding the bandwagon" where environmental issues are concerned, and some will argue, quite rightly, that scientific uncertainties mean that we should act with caution over the issue of climate change. Of all the climate change sceptics, the most coherent arguments tend to come from elements within the British Conservatives.  However, these important arguments are largely lost to us, as the Conservatives are not there.

The real repercussions of the decision to pull out of the EPP are now being felt. Instead of being a part of a group with clout, the Conservatives can be seen to have marginalised themselves – and their arguments – by decamping to the political periphery. In politics, power is always, by definition, at the centre. The trick is to take one’s peripheral arguments to the centre, not vice versa.

We hope that Copenhagen produces the right outcomes, but there will be many that would wish that the British Conservatives could have been a little more involved.