MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Territories unite on climate change

IT IS important that the European Union's Overseas Territories (EUOTs) are seen to take a lead on environmental issues.

That's the view of Councillor Richard Davies who, along with Cllr Mike Summers and External Development Officer, Jenny Smith, attended a meeting of EUOTs in Greenland last month.

While admitting he had initially wondered "why the Falklands needed to go to Greenland to talk to these places from all over the world," Cllr Davies said he was struck by the influence the EUOTs can have. He commented, "Here you have a cohesive, functional, probably quite effective group of territories; we've got a lot more in common than I expected, they've got quite a loud voice and it is a useful forum with a growing influence in Europe as time goes on..."

Cllr Davies was particularly interested in the first day of the conference which concerned environmental issues. He commented, "One of the things that struck me was how much we've got in common as OTs. You initially think ?Greenland, Falklands, French Polynesia, what is similar between them?'

"We're all rather small with vulnerable economies, we're all island nations, and we're all very vulnerable to the effects of climate change whether it be sea level rise, changes in weather patterns or decrease in biodiversity. The OTs are incredibly rich in numbers of species, compared with the EU."

Surprisingly, only two of the EUOTs have signed up to the Kyoto Agreement on climate change and Cllr Summers spoke to the meeting of the need to set an example to the rest of the world.

Cllr Davies commented: "Although we are tiny in global terms - I think we are just over a million people in the EUOTs - we've got a fairly large proportion of the world's fishing grounds and we've got 10% of the world's coral reefs in the OTs."

He said the EUOTs want to en- courage the member states and the European Commission to do their bit for environmental issues: "Everyone has heard of the EUOTs and anything we do has more of a resonance than perhaps a developing nation of a million people would have. It's important we are seen to take a lead, to set fairly high standards."

The Falklands is already well on its way to "doing our bit" for the environment, Cllr Davies said: "We've got the wind farm being developed, we've got the waste energy recovery programme being run, the Planning Department is encouraging good building standards, we've agreed in principal to grants for energy efficient boilers and solar panels. "We can do our bit and our smallness doesn't mean that we can't have influence."

European Money

The Falklands delegation was in Greenland to continue the quest to obtain European funding.

Councillor Mike Summers outlined the position when they were in Greenland: "The Financing Agreement (the last in a sequence of agreements required to draw down the money) has finally been agreed between FIG and the Commission.

This has to go for formal ratification to the EU Commissioners, but there is no reason to suppose there will be any issue there.

"As soon as the formal agreement is notified the document will have to be signed by both parties; I believe this will be done remotely (by e-mail). We then need to produce the necessary documentation to prove that we have reached the first milestone that enables drawdown."

Approximately three million Euros stand to be gained by the Falklands. Cllr Summers said the Falklands is also nearing payment of the outstanding Stabex money of around 2.4 million Euros.

Ascension Island

While on a holiday on Ascension Island, Cllr Davies took time to meet with the island's council. The council is young, having been formed only around five years ago. Cllr Davies said they were keen to discuss their "big issue" of land ownership and eligibility to reside on Ascension.

Last year the islanders had hoped they would be allowed to buy land in Ascension and would have rights of residency. They can currently only reside there if they are employed by one of the companies on Ascension or if they qualify as a certain class of dependent.

However in November they learned from the Foreign Office that the situation was not to change, news Cllr Davies said, the island council was "extremely disappointed" to receive.

Discussing other areas, the councillors told him they are interested in importing meat and dairy products, fruit and vegetables from the Falklands. He reported, "At the moment they import pretty much everything.

"I suppose nobody really has wanted to start off a private enterprise there as there's no security; you can't own land and you can't have a right to residency."

The Ascension council will continue to lobby the British Government on this issue and, Cllr Davies said, they recognise it is a "long term process." He added, "Maybe it's a question of building up the democratic process slowly." They also discussed the Ministry of Defence airbridge with Cllr Davies. He reported, "They are trying to build up their tourist industry and the RAF is their only civilian flight in and out. "They've got the same sorts of concerns as us such as customer care and access to seats." Penguin News