Socialist MEP Miriam Dalli was one of the speakers at a conference on climate change organised by Euronews and European Voice entitled The Road to Paris: challenges and chances for EU Climate and Energy Policy.The conference was addressed also by European Commissioner for Climate Change and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete, Juris Štalmeistars from the Latvian Presidency of the European Council and Johannes Meier, CEO of the European Climate Foundation. 

 The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris next year is a great opportunity also for Europe to tackle the issue of climate change. The European Union and all of its Member States should be frontrunners in signing the global agreement on climate change and the reduction of carbon emissions. 

During the conference Dr Dalli, along with Commissioner Canete, claimed that Europe should be on the forefront of efforts to create a global policy on carbon emissions reduction and to invest in cleaner energy sources in all Member States. Dr Dalli highlighted the domino effect whereby what happens in one EU Member State affects all other Member States.

MEP Dalli stated that it is very positive to see that following a period of economic recession within the European Union when environmental issues were side-lined, Europe is now giving environmental and climate issues the importance they deserve. She insisted that all necessary efforts must take place in order to create ambitious and just agreements which bind Member States complying with environmental targets.