The RA NA delegation is taking part in the Ordinary Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) taking place in Strasbourg.
“Dear colleagues,
Dear young colleagues,
On behalf of the SOC group I would like to thank our rapporteur, Aurora Floridia, for this great, timely and highly practical report.
What I particularly value is that it puts a human face on what can otherwise become a very technical debate. We speak about temperatures, emissions. But behind these numbers are people: a farmer facing another drought, a family struggling with rising costs, and a child who will live with the consequences of the decisions we make today.
And those consequences are not equally shared. Those with the fewest resources are often least able to protect themselves. Climate policy, therefore, cannot be separated from social justice.
This is why I find the report’s concept of habitability so powerful. Just as freedom and dignity are fundamental European values, habitability should be at the heart of our policies. Because without a liveable climate, accessible water, clean air, functioning ecosystems, rights and freedoms risk becoming abstract promises.
And this brings us to intergenerational fairness. Those of us who have the power to decide today cannot pass the risks, the damage and the cost of repairing them to our children. That means ambitious climate targets, certainly – but targets with deadlines, intermediate steps and corrective action when we fall behind.
The Klima Seniorinnen judgment reinforces precisely this responsibility: commitments alone are not enough; there must be an effective and verifiable path towards them.
And young people must be part of shaping that path. Not simply invited to conferences, given a microphone and then sent home. Their participation should be permanent and meaningful – in policy, in budgets and in the economic choices.
We should give young people the knowledge to recognise misinformation and greenwashing; support their projects and create pathways into quality jobs in the green transition. And we must ensure that climate policies do not make housing, energy, food or mobility less accessible to them.
This transition must be environmentally ambitious, but also socially fair. And it makes economic sense. The evidence presented in this report is clear: inaction will ultimately cost us more than action.
Dear colleagues,
This debate also has a particular resonance for Armenia, which this October will host COP17 on Biodiversity.
Climate and biodiversity are distinct challenges, but they meet at exactly the point this report describes: protecting the ecosystems, water and natural resources on which human life depends. COP17 will also be about turning international commitments into implementation.
And Europe should take another important step: recognising the autonomous right to a healthy environment and moving, without further delay, towards a legally binding Council of Europe instrument, with effective monitoring and a voice for young people.
Finally, there is something here that should rise above political divisions.
Whatever our political family, whatever country we come from, we all speak about how much we value our children and young people and I believe, those not yet born.
Climate action is one of the most concrete ways of turning that care into responsibility.
Our generation should not be remembered as one that understood the problem, had the means to act – and still passed the bill to the next.
Let us leave them something better: A Europe that remains livable, fair and full of possibility.
Thank you,” the MP said.
