With Wales melting in the recent heatwaves that have led to previously unseen birds, plants and animals being sighted around Wales and people struggling with fans or air conditioning on full blast we’re more aware than ever of the effects of global warming.

And as the traditional summer holiday season is in full swing the airports and roads are full of people escaping their everyday routines and taking a well-deserved break.

But this in turn takes its toll on climate change as the greenhouse gas CO2 is released from fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal every time we fly, get in our cars or turn an electric fan on.

Flying is the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. Between 1990 and 2003 the emissions from flying increased by 73% and looks set to double by 2020 and treble by 2030.

In the European Parliament last month we passed a report which called for strong action to be taken to reduce the impact of climate change by the airline industry. These included taxing the fuel airlines use and setting up an Emissions Trading Scheme for the aviation industry. This is a system that has been operating in other energy-intensive industries since the beginning of 2005. It sets a limit on the greenhouse gas emissions they’re allowed and allows companies to buy and sell these ‘emission permits’ with each other, so if a company wants to use more energy they have to pay more for it. This controls the overall CO2 emissions that are allowed and gives companies financial incentives to be more fuel-efficient.

However the Parliament and MEPs are guiltier than most of flying. I fly on nearly a weekly basis to either Brussels or Strasbourg to work and my job would not be possible without flying.

When a delegation of MEPs flew to Johannesburg for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 the Parliament paid a contribution to an environmental organisation equivalent to the cost of the C02 created by these flights. There are many similar schemes that allow individuals or companies to ‘offset’ their own travel with contributions going to research into climate change, creating alternative sources of energy or projects such as tree planting. My political group is setting up a scheme so that our MEPs can take responsibility for their own flights and will be encouraging the Parliament to look at its own environmental footprint.

The Cardiff to Brussels flight that I regularly take has been calculated as having a carbon cost of £1.10 per flight and I will also be making a contribution to environmental projects for every flight I take.

This doesn’t solve the problem but for the situations where we need to fly it at least means that a positive contribution is made to solving the problem.

We do have personal responsibilities for our own contribution to climate change and individual actions do make a difference. We can’t take energy for granted and will have to realise that we can’t continue to use more and more energy without any consequences.

But for the bigger picture the government and industry need to reduce the effect of our energy use on the climate by greater use of renewable energy, improved energy efficiency and forest restoration to absorb C02. If it doesn’t take drastic action the UK government is not going to reach the targets it set itself in 1997 to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% by 2010.

We’ve all got to take this seriously as individuals and politicians.