Intervention at the 7th Barents Parliamentary Conference in Helsinki, Finland

Intervention by Prof. Dr. Jānis Vucāns, Chair of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC), at the 7th Barents Parliamentary Conference in Helsinki,28-30 September 2015Session 2: Environmental issues including climate change - Today and future cooperation in the environmental sectorDear colleagues,On behalf of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference, let me first of all thank you for inviting me and the possibility to address the 7th Barents Parliamentary Conference.The Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference has again highlighted in its annual conference four weeks ago the utmost importance of intense cooperation and good, peaceful neighbourliness. This includes the necessity of strengthening the cooperation in the Northern Dimension, for a stable foundation of relations and cooperation between each and every regional organization and format.In the current period of time, cooperation at parliamentary level has intrinsic value because such cooperation involves the elected representatives of the citizens of the participating countries.The Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference has placed a special emphasis on environmental issues in many conferences ( even if we were concentrating this year on innovation in Social and Healthcare).Our generation has a special responsibility to prevent a disastrous development of the ongoing climate change. Since 30 years the climate change is one of the fundamental political challenges in the world.This year is of particular importance for this policy field.A binding climate agreement for all States Parties at the World Climate Conference in Paris at the end of this year is what has to be achieved after so many years of negotiations. This cannot be replaced by all measures, programmes, projects and steps in the right direction, which have already been done in many countries.(The key question is how to achieve the great transformation to an emissions free development in the long term and how to reach an agreement that creates a launching pad for this development. The European Union sent already a clear political signal last autumn: The Member States agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 % compared to 1990 levels, to raise the share of renewable energies to at least 27 % compared to the reference figures, all by 2030.)Apart from these worldwide efforts and the great goals we are called to reach also as much as possible through regional cooperation.The deglaciation of the polar caps is just one example for the obvious consequences of the climate change especially the Arctic and Barents region are facing. There are no easy solutions to tackle the threats to the environment, but the cooperation in the Baltic Sea region is very promising for achieving remarkable progress in energy and climate change. That is why I would like to stress that climate change is a permanent issue for the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC) since several years.Already in 2007, the BSPC initiated a Working Group on Energy and Climate Change. The Working Group was established at the 16th BSPC in August 2007 with the mandate to raise political focus on energy and climate change on the national agendas of members of the Working Group and to come up with recommendations for the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the governments of the Baltic Sea region on how to mitigate the current situation. Its final report was presented at the annual conference in 2009 and was preserved in the 18th Resolution.In 2011, a Working Group on Green Growth and Energy Efficiency Use ( in case that: it was already mentioned before) was established, linking up to climate change adaptation measures to be taken. This BSCP Working Group had also the mandate to raise political focus on energy and climate change on the national agendas of members of the Working Group and to come up with recommendations for CBSS and the governments of the Baltic Sea Region.As you can see, there is an intensive cooperation and political exchange between the BSPC and CBSS. And there is an ongoing BSR Climate Change Dialogue Platform that is organized by the CBSS and supported by the BSPC.The Council of the Baltic Sea States is an overall political forum for high level dialogue and regional inter-governmental cooperation between the Baltic Sea States, including Norway, Iceland and the European Commission. The BSPC expresses explicitly its support to the CBSS project BALTIC 21 that tackles the issue of climate change.BALTIC 21 battles climate change by modernizing outdated practices that cause needless emissions, promoting bio-energy production as well as adapting the Baltic Sea Region to climate change. The Baltic Sea Region has a large potential for innovations in renewable energy by using the sea, wind and biomass.The BSPC also supported the HELCOM during its Climate change in the Baltic Sea Area thematic assessment in 2013. This assessment provided and provides recent information on past and projected future climate change in the Baltic Sea Area and potential impacts of climate change on the Baltic Sea ecosystem. The results of the report on this assessment are clear. We need to continue tackling the climate change challenges with all our partners on the Baltic Sea Region.Our partner organization on the governmental level CBSS was also invited to give a speech at our annual conference that we just held in Rostock, 30 August - 1 September. The current CBSS Chair of the Committee of Senior Officials, Michał Czyż, Ambassador of Poland, expressed in his speech that Poland - during its Presidency - strives to launch a new agenda on a sustainable development of the Baltic Sea Region with the aim to adapt and implement the UN goals concerning climate change on a regional level. Focusing this, the CBSS and the BSPC will continue working together also on environmental issues across the Baltic Sea.My second point directly refers to this cooperation in the environmental sector. We, the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference, decided in our 24th Resolution at our last annual conference in Rostock, regarding cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region, to(quotation:)“10. strengthen and further develop HELCOM as the main coordinating body in the effort to protect the Baltic marine environment, and to strongly support the implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP), and to stress the importance of BSAP as the environmental pillar of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region;”.The BSPC was established in 1991 here in Helsinki at a time of fundamental political change on the initiative by Kalevi Sorsa, then President of the Finnish Parliament, as a forum for political dialogue between national and regional parliamentarians from the Baltic Sea Region. We aim at raising awareness and opinion on issues of current political interest and relevance for the Baltic Sea Region. Furthermore, we strive to ensure that joint positions, which we articulate in our resolutions, are implemented by our governments. We promote and drive various initiatives and efforts to support a sustainable environmental, social and economic development of the Baltic Sea Region. And we are a forum in which the dialogue combines different political actors.So, the BSPC approaches its commitments concerning the protection of the environmental status of the Baltic Sea in two ways: on the one hand via the member parliaments and on the other hand via the support of and cooperation with organizations like HELCOM. And to my opinion “cooperation” is the decisive factor here. The protection of the environment is no national task. It is a transnational and joint task. So, we need - as I highlighted already at the beginning of my speech - to cooperate with everyone who is committed to the Baltic Sea Region: politicians as well as stakeholders or scientists or economists and, of course, what is very important in the democratic society, - with the citizens of our countries.Unfortunately, we also observe that the environmental policy in some rim states has not the same significance like in others. Even though, we all work together and strive to strengthen the dialogue with the aim to improve the environment and to implement environmental strategies like the Baltic Sea Action Plan.In my opinion it is important and helpful for progress in several environmental fields if we – the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference and the Barents Parliamentary Conference – bundle our common interests on environmental issues.Thank you.