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At the heart of the debate, in focus on this episode of EU Decoded, is whether the 27-country bloc can afford to retain its leadership in climate policy while remaining an economic powerhouse.
Through its Climate Law, the EU pledged to become climate neutral by mid-century, with an intermediate target of a 55% reduction in greenhouse emissions compared to 1990 level by 2030. The review to the landmark piece of legislation spearheaded by the EU’s executive in July plans to set a 2040 target.
The review also includes a proposal to allow EU countries to participate in the international carbon market to offset some of their pollution.
“So basically, an EU member state could pay a third country outside the EU to reduce its greenhouse emissions,” Euronews reporter Gregoire Lory told the programme. “NGOs are saying this is nonsense because it runs against scientific opinion.”
It also allows for other forms of flexibilities.
“One is the carbon removal, could be nature-based, or industrial technologies. And on this point, NGOs are saying that these industrial technologies’ removers are not developed enough to be scaled up,” Lory said. Another one is “flexibility between sectors, so sectors ahead on their reductions, could compensate those lagging behind.”
‘We can’t solve the climate crisis alone’
A attempt to fast-track the review through the European Parliament was however rejected.
“The far right blocked it together with the (centre-right group) EPP,” Greens MEP Lena Schilling (Austria) told Euronews. “Now we, together with the social democrats and the liberals, need to get EPP on board and that’s what we are trying to do, to work together constructively and do another report, other amendments.”
But lawmakers are not the only ones divided. French President Emmanuel Macron had called in June for the Commission to delay its proposal, arguing more time is needed to reach a European compromise that would not hamper the bloc’s flagging global competitiveness.
For Schilling, Macron’s stance “really messes with the next COP negotiations” which will take place in Brazil in November.
“We are always saying we can’t solve the climate crisis alone in Europe. We need China. We need the US. We need other countries. We need India. And then at the same time, right before we are announcing our NDCs (National Determined Contribution) trying to bail out. And that’s just irresponsible and extremely, extremely dangerous,” she added.
But the fight against climate change seemed to have slipped down the list of priorities for the Commission. In its proposal last month for a €2 trillion budget for the 2028-2034 period, the focus was squarely on competitiveness and security and defence.
Journalist: Alice Tidey and Isabel Marques da Silva
Content production: Pilar Montero López
Video production: Zacharia Vigneron
Graphism: Loredana Dumitru
Editorial coordination: Ana Lázaro Bosch and Jeremy Fleming-Jones
