‘I don’t drive a car at the weekend any more…’

Stavros Dimas, the environment commissioner, talks to Emily Smith about saving the planet from a climate-change catastrophe

"I can witness it, you can witness it - everybody is witnessing it, the impacts are felt everywhere." Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas is in no doubt that climate change is happening and that something must be done to stop it.

"Climate change problems have started and more will be created. They will be catastrophic for the planet," he says.

"We are already facing the impacts of extreme weather: this year for example we've seen the Iberian droughts and floods in Eastern Europe," he adds. Although these cannot be directly linked to climate change, he explains, they at the very least gave a taster of problems we will have to face if CO2 emissions continue to rise. These will have an effect "on so many sectors - for instance on agriculture, on tourism, on health, on fish".

Dimas says he has started to worry more about greenhouse gas emissions since taking over as environment commissioner last year. "Of course I've always been aware of climate change, but when I started here my knowledge became deeper and now I am in a position to give direction [to the debate]."

The Greek commissioner says this new knowledge has affected his personal habits. "I don't drive a car at the weekend any more and I'm now even more careful of the electricity I use," he says.

But if Dimas is convinced of the need for action, he still has a lot of convincing to do, notably at the upcoming Montreal climate change conference. He says it is "quite unrealistic" to expect any future emissions reduction targets to be agreed at Montreal. "No one expects that." He hopes instead for signs that "the abundant scientific evidence will convince everyone of the need to move now".

This may be possible, he says, with countries such as Mexico, Brazil and South Africa, who are not yet affected by targets set under the Kyoto Protocol but seem to be "showing great interest in co-operating".

The US remains a bigger obstacle to agreeing a truly international approach to tackling climate change. Looking further ahead, however, Dimas seems relatively optimistic. An ideal long-term system to fight climate change would, he says, be a system of global CO22 emissions trading and "this is something that could be interesting for the US". Parts of the US, he points out, already operate emissions trading for pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (NOx).

Popular feeling will also, he believes, help persuade America to reduce significantly its CO2 emissions. "Public opinion is behind us and politicians reflect that."

The Kyoto Protocol covers ratifying countries up until 2012. Whether or not a post-2012 agreement, if and when one is reached, will bear any resemblance to Kyoto is a controversial question and one which Dimas stresses is only just beginning to be discussed in earnest.

The importance of developing more efficient, less polluting technologies - as favoured by the US - is not in question, he says. Nonetheless, the guiding principle of Kyoto also has to be protected. "Ultimately, "we have to agree [emission reduction] targets".

At the end of his first year in office, Dimas proudly points to several climate change-related achievements as highlights of his last 12 months. First among them is the launch of a Europe-wide CO2 emissions trading scheme on 1 January, something that seemed to be in jeopardy last year as several member states struggled to get their national emission allocation plans in on time.

But the commissioner also stresses that the EU cannot be complacent about its climate change record and that plenty remains to be done. The 'clean development mechanism' (CDM) set out by the Kyoto Protocol, which encourages Western countries to finance renewable technology projects in the developed world, is an important initiative but one that "needs strengthening". For Europe this means first of all more staff and more money.

The European Commission plans to invest EUR 10-12 million per year in the CDM, until it becomes self-financing - Dimas believes the scheme will eventually "generate billions of dollars a year". The fact that of over 500 proposed national CDM schemes only a few have been processed also shows the need to speed up the processing system.

The Commission also plans to step up its public information campaign, with EUR 5m earmarked for climate change publications and conferences in 2006. Dimas is particularly keen to target children and students with climate change information. "They could be very important and they usually get information to their parents," he says.

After all, he adds, children are the reason for making sure climate change does not change our planet for the worse. "We have to give our children and grandchildren the same world we lived in, or a better one."

Interview with Stavros Dimas, the EU's Environment Commissioner, focusing on climate change. Article is part of a European Voice Special Report: 'Climate Change (COP11 and MOP1 Conference)'.

• Primary Source

European Commission: DG Environment: Climate change http://ec.europa.eu/comm/environment/climat/home_en.htm

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