By Anne-France White - 11th April 2007
US actor Martin Sheen and other stars called for urgent action against climate change as they presented environmental awards at the European parliament on 11 April.
Sheen was joined by Bee Gee Robin Gibb, former Indian environment minister Maneka Ghandi and European parliament president Hans-Gert Poettering in presenting the “Energy Globe awards” at the gala event at parliament.
The award are held every year to reward sustainable environment solutions from around the world.
Speaking to the press before the event, Poettering emphasised that the parliament “wants to play a leading role in achieving the post-Kyoto targets in the next six years; and we need international cooperation to achieve this”.
Sheen, for his part, argued that the US “has to wake up” on global warming and was very critical of the Bush administration’s current stance on environmental issues.
“We lack leadership, we do not have the support of the government,” he said.
“This administration has been lax – it’s very upsetting and very discouraging. Maybe the next administration will wake up.”
“Public opinion in the US is starting to wake up, no thanks to this administration,” he added.
“There is continuing denial at the White House.”
Sheen - who is known in the US as a politically-engaged actor - had kinder words for Europe, saying the EU “fortunately is far more aware and is doing far more than we are”.
“The environment is one of the few things on which I agree with Arnold Schwarzenegger,” he joked, referring to the California governor's work on climate change.
“Though to be honest I think his stance has more to do with [his Democrat wife] Maria.”
Meanwhile Ghandi, an environmental activist and a former Indian environment minister, argued that Delhi is unlikely to join Kyoto and start actively cutting its CO2 emissions.
“The problem has not hit the consciousness of our governments which see themselves as upwardly-mobile in energy use,” she said.
She noted that India has some of the lowest per capita energy consumption in the world, with 57 per cent of rural households without any electricity.
Ghandi was also critical of the Washington's position that it will only join the Kyoto Protocol if India and China do – she pointed out that the rest of the world put together produces less greenhouse gases than the US.
“I am quite certain the US is using us as an excuse,” she said. “To say the US will not move until India and China do is ridiculous – the US should move anyway.”
Ghandi argued that any move by the US would have a big impact on policy in China and India, and said she hopes the awards will “help governments reconsider their positions”.
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