Conference -Time To Commit! Consumer Cooperatives' Actions Against Climate Change

TIME TO COMMIT!

There is broad scientific and political consensus that Climate Change is occurring and that if steps are not immediately taken, the threat which it poses will become even more serious. In spite of the global economic crisis, it is high time for action. 2009 is the year of the revision of the Kyoto protocol and the European Union needs a bold and comprehensive policy on Climate Change where all actors are engaged.

Consumer Cooperatives have long since taken up this key challenge: inherent to their values, they were among the first social economy actors to convert Climate Change into a political priority and to act consequently. They have indeed never feared long-run perspectives as they were and still are there to respond to their consumer-members expectations and to look ahead for new generations.

CCW/EURO COOP'S SPECIFIC ACTIONS

The commitment of consumer cooperatives gathered in Consumer Co-operatives Worldwide (CCW) and in Euro Coop in tackling Climate Change has profound roots and it is primarily linked to the special care they have always paid to environmental-related issues. There are indeed several initiatives going on at national level aimed at attaining this goal, spacing from countrywide educational campaigns, to massive switching towards renewable energy sources, to attentive production policies. At EU level, Euro Coop organised in June 2007 a major European Conference on this subject, which resulted in a fruitful and lively debate. As a follow-up to it, the European consumer cooperative movement recognised that Climate Change was one of the greatest emergencies of our time.

This paved the way for CCW and Euro Coop to start working on an ambitious and all-encompassing project which will be officially launched in this event. The project will serve as an action plan, containing the specific actions and goals that consumer cooperatives will voluntarily commit to, as their contribution to this challenge. This initiative is an example of genuine cooperation among CCW/Euro Coop members and of the serious willingness to deliver concrete results able to live up to the political engagements undertaken.

PREPARING FOR COPENHAGEN

This conference also represents an important occasion of discussion with representatives of the EU institutions and other stakeholders active on the same field. We will hear the voices of key EU political representatives as well as those of NGOs, think-tanks and private retailers. The purpose is to spark an open debate on what has been done so far and what lies ahead in tackling Climate Change, which are the challenges that we need to face and by which means we intend to address them, as a preparation for the World Summit on Climate Change which will take place in December in Copenhagen. Euro Coop firmly believes that attention to Climate Change must stay high on the EU and world leaders' political agenda and, through this event, it hopes that it will actively contribute to pass this important message on.

For further information, please refer to Rosita Zilli; Policy Officer.
E-mail: rzilliateurocoop.coop and tel. +32-2-285-00-72.