Several environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on Monday blasted the European Union (EU) environment ministers for their short-sightedness in the environment policy discussions.
The ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, supported old-fashioned, inefficient and wasteful industries at the expense of those that innovate and create new jobs, said a joint opinion of Climate Action Network Europe, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth Europe and the World Wildlif Fund (WWF).
The ministers also watered down the emission reduction proposal for non-industrial sectors, undermining the best chance to help European households suffering from high energy bills, said the NGOs in a press release.
Protectionism was the call of the day at the meeting, with ministers defending as a priority the short-term interests of a small portion of EU industry, rather than pushing to protect EU citizens from the most dangerous impacts of climate change and putan end to its dependency on expensive fossil fuels, said the press release.
"Today's level of debate was extremely poor and gave more room to the opportunistic demands of the Polish and Italian governments, who want to give old-fashioned, inefficient and wasteful industries a free ride at the expense of innovation and job creation," reads the press release.
"These positions are particularly ironic since ministers also expressed high hopes for the UN climate summit next year in Copenhagen."
Italy and Poland fail to grasp where Europe and the world's future lie and what unabated climate change will cost the world, said the NGOs.
They asked for a new venue for this December's international negotiations, which are scheduled to take place in the Polish town of Poznan.
"The Polish government has shown itself to be unfit to lead the next international climate negotiations taking place in December in Poznan. The international community should actively look for a new chair," they said.
Source:Xinhua
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