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European Parliament vetoes 30 per cent emissions target

Tory MEPs' votes likely to have swung result

Responding to news that a key vote on extending the EU's greenhouse gas emissions target to 30 per cent was lost in the European Parliament today (6 July 2011) by just nine votes, Scotland’s senior MEP in the European Parliament, David Martin, said:

"David Cameron claims to be green, but this vote has shown the hollowness of his party's commitments on environmental policy.

 "It looks like these proposals would have gone through had the Conservative MEPs given them their support. Instead they have taken the pressure to act off the European Commission and EU countries.

 "This leaves the government's claim to be winning the argument on EU emissions in tatters.

 "It's just another example of the Tories failing to live up to their pre-election claims. It looks like Cameron's commitment to lead the "greenest government ever" can be added to a long list of broken promises."

 

 Background:
*    The European Parliament vote, was seen by green campaigners as a crucial opportunity to put pressure on the EU Commission to come forward with proposals for a new 30% target.
*    However, proposals to water down the original report by removing the call for an EU target of 30 per cent were carried by 326 votes to 317 with 17 abstentions. If just five of the MEPs who voted against had voted in favour then the proposals for a 30 per cent target would have been carried.
*    A full record of how individual MEPs voted will be published later today, but it seems highly likely that Conservative MEPs made the difference on the crucial vote. A number of Conservative MEPs had made it clear in advance of the vote that they would not support the target.
 *    With the 30 per cent target and other crucial environmental measures defeated in the vote, centre-left and green MEPs refused to support the overall proposals meaning that the package failed to achieve a majority. The European Parliament has therefore failed to adopt any position on emissions targets.
 *    The British government's coalition agreement states: "We will push for the EU to demonstrate leadership in tackling international climate change, including by supporting an increase in the EU emission reduction target to 30% by 2020."