Jacques Delors, former President of the European Commission , is little known for his work on the environment, but he was instrumental in laying the foundations for a number of European laws that are currently in force. Disclaimer - All opinions in this column reflect the views of the author s , not Euractiv Media. Jacques Delors was present in Rio to sign the Convention on Climate Change, and the words he spoke there have a special resonance.
He said there: "The concept of sustainable development invites us to relearn the value of collective goods and common resources and to rediscover our concern for the long term. When I joined his cabinet at the beginning of , Jacques Delors asked me to gather all the information he needed to decide whether to join the fight for a CO2 tax.
He wanted the proposal to be adopted before the Rio Earth Summit, so a fierce battle began in which divergent national interests and lobbies were palpable.
At the end of this battle, which requested 14 preparatory meetings, the tax won the vote in the Commission by a wide margin. This was two weeks before Rio.
As he had wished, Europe, under his impetus, had sent a signal to the world that saving the planet had a price that polluters had to pay.
