Even in this age of putting a price on hot air, words come cheaper than carbon emissions. So not a few MEPs are unimpressed by a resolution on climate change to be approved on Wednesday.

This resolution calling for political leadership comes while the full parliament sits in Strasbourg, having been followed there by a convoy of lorries carrying documents and other essentials from Brussels and Luxembourg, its other seats.

Hans-Gert Pottering, inaugurated as speaker yesterday, came under immediate pressure to act. The Greens have long been demanding a carbon neutral parliament. Gary Titley, British Labour group leader, jumped on the low-carbon bandwagon on Tuesday, endorsing the call. “Increasingly we will find it more difficult to demand higher standards in this field unless we put our own house in order,” he told Mr Pottering in a letter.

His aides say he would look at the issue but it was not raised in his speech setting out his priorities for his two-and-a-half year term.

Monica Frassoni, the Green who was runner-up to Pottering in the election for speaker on a carbon neutral ticket, says parliament’s 4,000-plus staff spend 6.2m euros on heating, 1.9m on heating and produce 11,245 tons of carbon emissions annually.

They produces 2,100 tons of waste a year and get through 846 tons of paper. She welcomed a commitment a year ago for parliament to work towards a green certification but said more needed to be done.

“No one can doubt that one of the causes of such an ecological imprint is the very existence of three seats and the movement of people involved,” the feisty Italian federalist said. Yet despite a 1m signature petition, senior MEPs refuse to sanction a debate on the issue, since a treaty commitment binds them to Strasbourg and they can hide behind national governments.

Chris Davies, a British Liberal, also condemned parliament’s failure to practise what it preaches.. He discovered last year that the assembly’s fleet of 40 limousines produce average emissions of 216g/km, well above the 161g/km European average, which the Commission wants reduced to 120g/km by 2012.

"We are grossly extravagant in our use of natural resources and we are failing to practise what we preach. It’s time for a comprehensive review of all our working practices," he said on Tuesday.

Pottering himself admitted that : “Our values become more convincing to others if we live our own lives with credibility.” He was referring to lofty goals such as human rights, Middle East peace and so on. Trading in the gas-guzzling Merc would be a mundane and practical step too far, it seems.

February 15th, 2007 in Environment, MEPs | Permalink