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EU Parliament's two homes create
20,000 tons of C02
Stephen Castle
London
Independent
Wednesday April 25, 2007
The "travelling circus" between the European Parliament's
two homes pumps the same amount of C02 into the atmosphere as 4,000
London homes and undermines MEPs' credibility on green issues, according
to a report.
A study of the impact of the monthly commute between the Brussels
and Strasbourg seats of the European Parliament concludes that it
not only costs tax payers an extra €200m a year, but does the
same environmental damage as a total of 13,000 round-trip transatlantic
flights.
The audit of the cost to the planet of the thousands of extra road,
rail and plane journeys, as well as heating one extra building,
is likely to intensify pressure on the Euro MPs to reform their
procedures. More than one million people have signed a petition
calling for the Strasbourg seat to be axed.
The 60-page document, commissioned by the UK's two Green MEPs,
was conducted by John Whitelegg, professor of sustainable transport
at the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York.
It calculates the extra carbon emissions generated every month
by MEPs, staff, journalists and visitors travelling from Brussels
to Strasbourg and back, the "carbon costs" of freight
between the two sites, and the energy needed to maintain the two
parliament buildings. Together, they total at least 20,000 tons
of unnecessary CO2, according to the report.
Caroline Lucas, one of the MEPs who commissioned the document,
said: "It is simply unacceptable that so much CO2 is being
emitted completely unnecessarily - and €200m is being wasted
every year - on this anachronistic travelling circus. These emissions
are not just undermining EU efforts to cut CO2 across the union:
they send out a signal that cutting emissions isn't as big a priority
as defending the status quo."
The monthly plenary sessions of the Parliament in Strasbourg require
the movement of 400 personal assistants of MEPs and between 120
and 160 journalists based in Brussels as well as dozens of officials
and lobbyists. Fifteen lorries ferry cupboards and tin trunks full
of documents each month from Brussels or Luxembourg to Strasbourg
and back again.
Despite the growing criticism of the two seats, France has so far
resisted calls for reform and any change would need the approval
of all EU governments.
INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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