Which way forward in the fight against climate change? Giovanni La Via, Environment Committee chair, talks about the path Parliament is mapping out for the future.

CO2 targets: Striking the right balance

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What strategies will Parliament adopt  in the fight against climate change

in preparation for the global  climate conference in Paris next year?

Will it support the governments'  proposal to eliminate mandatory targets

and give states greater freedom  to choose the best solutions?

Or will it ask for more ambitious targets  against CO2 emissions?

We talked to the new chair of the  Environment Committee, Giovanni La Via.

Here's the first question. Ready?  -Ready.

We feel that the EU's policies  aren't rising to the challenges

through programmes like the Common  Agricultural Policy, infrastructure support.

When will we have a consistent EU policy  that meets these challenges?

Do you agree with this representative  from the environmentalist world?

No, I don't really agree with him.  EU policies do actually achieve their aims.

We're on target to reduce  CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020.

Sure, we're behind  with some of our targets...

Which ones, for example?  -Some of our targets.

We'd like to have more renewable energy,

and growth in some European countries  has been lower than we expected.

But this doesn't mean  we're not on the right track.

We're making progress year by year  and moving in the right direction.

This year you'll be preparing for  the Paris conference at the end of 2015.

Shouldn't the EU send out a signal  to countries that don't want to listen

In July the European Commission  set ambitious targets up to 2050.

of 40% reduction in CO2 emissions,  30% renewable energy,

We're also working with Ban Ki-moon,  the UN Secretary-General,

in order to develop  even greater cooperation.

However, we need  the newly industrialised countries,

the big newly industrialised  global powers like China and India,

to play an active part  in the emission-reducing process.

But the European Commission's  current proposal

gives states greater freedom  over how to reach these targets,

Isn't there a risk that  countries most affected by the crisis

There is a risk,  and when we didn't have binding targets

we gave the Member States guidelines,  which they followed to some extent.

Member States  often didn't manage to meet them.

The main thing is that we keep moving  in the right direction.

We cannot afford to leave emissions  and energy consumption unchanged

because we know that resources will  be depleted during the next century.

will you try  to promote binding targets or not?

Parliament has always taken  this direction.

But in our legislative procedure  Parliament and the Council must agree,

and the Member States  are opposed to binding targets.

In France we believe  that we should avoid

further increases  in costs for businesses,

which are Europe's  main areas of work in this field.

"We already pay too much tax  and have growth problems.

We can't make  any more green investments."

We always need to strike a good balance.

We can't consider  raising costs for industry

if we can't guarantee industry  the competitiveness it needs

Obviously energy costs  are very high in Europe,

limiting our ability  to compete in some sectors.

We need controlled energy prices and  we need to change our energy portfolio.

Europe is moving towards renewables,  which include nuclear energy.

Choices regarding nuclear energy  vary between countries.

as part of a big  international research project,

ITER, because that would solve  all our problems.

The last question  also comes from industry,

but it's a positive example  from the Mars chocolate firm,

which has managed to reduce energy costs  by investing in green energy.

with the household waste  incineration plant near the factory.

In this way we have been able  to reconcile economic development,

increased manufacturing volume  and reduction in environmental impact

have fallen by 60%  thanks to this investment.

because all businesses must aim,  within the manufacturing process,

to use renewable energy supplies  whenever possible,

Nowadays the entire energy  production system from small plants

could play a significant part  in bringing down costs for businesses.

Thank you for the interview.  -Thank you.