Environment, Climate, Energy Preamble
Environment and climate do not stop at borders, energy also crosses borders in a common Europe. But so far way too many things are done just on a national level.
We want to ensure that future generations will have a base for a life in freedom and dignity. A healthy environment, biodiversity, sustainable use of resources, and equal access to energy, food, and water are fundamental requirements for this. To ensure a safe future we want a fast transition to a clean, circular economy that reduces its environmental impact to net zero.
Environment - Sustainability
The PIRATES support the aims and principles declared by the EU to safeguard our water, air, soil, natural environment and raw materials for the sake of our health and well-being. We also agree with doing this in a sustainable way by taking account of economic, social and regional aspects and by acting responsibly towards future generations and animal welfare.
The PIRATES appreciate the progress made thanks to EU environmental laws. However, while voluntary measures by potential polluters may work sometimes, they cannot be relied upon. Legal loopholes and weaknesses are being used to serve economic interests with the public ultimately having to pay for the environ- mental and health damages. We, therefore, seek more effective implementation and enforcement of the principles of precaution, prevention, ‘polluters paying’, as well as tackling problems at their sources. Sanctions in the case of non-compliance need to be strengthened. Environmental whistleblowers play a vital role for the benefit of society. They need to receive more support and compensation arrangements which match more realistically their professional and personal damages.
Environment - Science based rules
To increase transparency and reliability, we want to make the scientific approach mandatory in any environmental decision- making process. The public has the right to easy, timely and reliable access to environmental data and the decisions resulting from it. This information should also include methods of monitoring and investigations. The data should be available at
all times on governmental websites. Scientific advice and specifications which form the basis for administrative and legal decisions need to be sourced from independent experts. Participation in relevant meetings needs to be affordable. Furthermore, a diverse supply of independent scientists needs to be maintained. This can only be achieved by adequately funding aca- demic research into acute and emerging environmental problems rather than increasingly promoting research with links to industry.
Environment - Consistent and effective rules
Implementation of environmental laws has to focus on achieving the stated aims and not just generate additional records and registrations. Regulations must not require registrations in every single EU country, a central registration should be sufficient so as not to obstruct access to the common market for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The environmental impact of any associated bureaucracy has to be taken into account when deciding on the suitability of an approach.
Diverging national rules must be stopped. In a common market it is not acceptable to have different requirements for labeling or recycling products in each country.
Environment - Circular economy
Preserving and reusing resources by recycling is key to a sustainable economy. To ensure the long term availability of materials it is necessary to implement a circular economy based on the cradle-to-cradle principle. Export of waste to third countries must be effectively restricted to make sure materials are not lost or destroyed.
Climate
The Paris Agreement to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels has to be implemented. Even if it should become impossible to still meet the 1.5°C target we must strive for staying as close as possible above that limit.
Climate - No time to lose
The necessary concepts and technologies for achieving the climate protection goal have been developed and most are already in use, it is necessary to roll them out in large scale. The PIRATES demand the legal conditions for these technologies to be used.
All subsidies for activities impacting the climate negatively must be stopped, this includes financing or providing securities for financing climate averse projects abroad.
Climate - Stop carbon leakage
Emissions of climate gases for imported goods, (i.e. resulting from power generation at the production location) should be attributable to the importing countries. Imported goods must be taxed to account for carbon leakage, to stimulate more climate friendly production for goods imported to the EU.
Climate - Not just CO2
CO2 is the largest part of the climate averse emissions but other emissions have to be controlled too. Gases like fluorocarbons with high climate impact have to be reduced, replaced, contained. All emissions of climate active gases have to be controlled and reduced.
Climate - Reverse emissions
The climate gas levels in the atmosphere are already too high and must be produced. We want to stimulate projects that capture climate gases and use them as base materials for long lasting products.
Energy
We want to establish a sustainable and reliable energy infrastructure that offers as much participation and transparency as possible.
With the increasing role of renewables the number of privately owned electricity generation is exploding, former consumers become prosumers, cooperatives take the local supply in their own hands. The legal framework has to be adapted for this new situation where no longer only a few large companies make up the energymarket.
Our future development, including building a circular economy, depends on energy. We have to make sure that we have clean, reliable, and abundant energy available.
Energy - Becoming sustainable
The transition from fossil resources to sustainable and clean energy sources is necessary. Use of energy sources must not be in conflict with other environmental objectives and agriculture for food production. The technologies with the lowest impact must be prioritized and their construction supported.
Energy - Becoming resilient
Recent developments have shown the negative impact of being dependent on the import of energy resources in times of crisis. The EU has all the necessary technology and resources available domestically to build an energy system without critical dependencies on outside countries.
We want to set up an IPCEI (Important Project of Common European Interest) to build domestic production capacities for all components necessary for a transition to a green economy.
Energy - Becoming efficient
Energy use must be optimized to be efficient. For this goal we want to support energy efficient technologies and the transition of energy sectors to electricity as the primary energy form. By eliminating energy transformation steps a lot of losses are eliminated too. By electrifying transport, heating, and many industrial processes the required primary energy is dropping, though the need for electricity is going to rise.
Energy - As local as possible as central as necessary
The European electricity grid is great to compensate temporary fluctuation in demand and supply and prevent regions from getting into trouble in case of local supply problems. Though expanding the grid to move major parts of the energy for a whole country accross the continent is costly and produces bottlenecks that can lead to major failures.
Primarily production and demand should be matched locally as much as possible and the European grid should act as a safety net.