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It is my pleasure to welcome you at this round table discussion on a very important subject – climate change. This is a second public event organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the support of the European Social Fund. I am very glad, that today we have an enlarged international audience with representatives from the European Commission and our European partners. I would also like to welcome representatives from Lithuanian business community, NGOs, state institutions and media. I will be brief with my introduction, not to take too much time from the discussion.

With the financial support of the European Social Fund, Lithuania has prepared the feasibility study on implementation of Lithuanian commitments in the field of climate change. Today is a good opportunity to present them, but this is not our only goal. Thus, the main topic of today’s meeting could be summarized as reflections on the ambition level which could be reasonable for the European Union and Lithuania itself in the field of climate change and energy. It is not a simple question, and there might be many different views.

Some would argue that European commitments in the field of climate change and energy are challenging, because they require us to change our way of thinking, our way of acting and our way of planning for the future. It is a fundamental change, indeed, but it is not a change just for the sake of changing. Safety and prosperity of future generations is at stake. So it is a challenge that we can not afford not to accept.

Some other may claim that collective commitments of the Member States of the European Union are, firstly, a burden to the economy and a threat to our competitiveness.  Furthermore, while the future of international climate change regime is unclear, we must base our actions on the realistic analysis of global playing field. If we move further than other international partners, will we be able to stop climate change? Will our industry stay competitive enough, if we have the strictest commitments? These are reasonable concerns and we can not ignore them. Here we also look forward to the European Commission’s impact analysis on Member State level of the possible European Union’s move beyond 20 per cent target.

A third group of people may call climate change and energy goals THE opportunity of our generation. They say that we live in an era of the new revolution that will be the basis for economic growth for many decades to come. It is a revolution of green technologies and Europe must not be left behind. We need to make sure that enough funds are provided to our scientists and our entrepreneurs; we need to make sure that wise decisions are made when choosing energy mix, when planning future ways of transportation, etc. The decisions we make now will essentially determine whether the European Union stays technologically and scientifically competitive in the long run vis-à-vis with China, India, and the USA.

Of course, these three schools of thought represent just some of the possible points of view on the issue of climate change commitments. It seems to me that each of them has something important in their arguments and no matter to which of them one subscribes, we have to find common ground in order to move forward. That is the area where discussions can be very helpful, especially when we have facts and calculations to base our arguments. I know that many speakers today will talk also about recent impact assessments, feasibility studies and other evaluations. I am sure that it will be both interesting to hear and useful to reflect upon. I hope that our meeting today will help us to take one more step in finding common ground.

I wish you all fruitful discussions. Thank you for your attention.