On 12 and 13 June 2008, the European Parliament held its Climate Change AGORA. The event, which was opened by EP president Hans-Gert Pöttering, brought together climate experts, MEPs and over 500 members of European civil society to discuss their views on climate change and make recommendations ahead of the adoption of EU carbon reduction measures. At the Agora it was agreed that immediate action to halt climate change and protect future generations is needed by the EU, its Member States and citizens.

"Tackling climate change ... is about the future of Europe and of the whole world. We must take our responsibility for the next generations, and the European Union must be the leader in this struggle", said European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering, adding that "this Agora is the way the European Parliament wants to answer to those concerns and reinstitute a tradition from ancient Greece".

The Thursday morning session of the Agora was devoted to setting out the state of play of international negotiations in reaching a post-Kyoto agreement. Speakers included: European Commission President José Manuel Barroso; Italian MEP Guido Sacconi, rapporteur for the legislative file on emission performance standards for new cars; Karl-Heinz Florenz who presented the interim report of the special committee on climate change; and Jeremy Rifkin, a leading American intellectual from the Foundation on Economic Trends.

The issues raised by the speakers fuelled a very lively debate with citizen’s calling for a 30% cut in CO2 emissions from their 1990 level by 2020.

The Thursday afternoon and Friday morning debates were structured into five different workshops on Resources, Techniques, Solidarity, Economies, and Governance. The results of the working groups were presented in the Agora plenary on Friday afternoon.

The “Resources” workshop recommended caution in promoting biofuels, and said that nuclear was not the solution to climate change. The “Techniques” workshop called for Member States to impose mandatory emissions standards for passenger vehicles of 120g CO2/km by 2012 and 80g CO2/km by 2020. The “Economies” workshop suggested the EU should explore “personal carbon quotas”, whilst the “Governance” workshop said that climate protection should be taught at all school stages.

The “Solidarity" workshop text, raised the issue of climate change and health in the following statement:

“The citizens gathered in the Agora on Climate Change... urge the European Institutions to develop a strategy to help vulnerable regions and populations to prevent and to adapt to the adverse effects of Climate Change, in particular on food security, health, water supplies and livelihood.”