Tackling climate change is one of the four priorities in the European Commission work programme for the coming year, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker emphasised in his State of the Union speech in Strasbourg on Wednesday 13 September.
The political ambition he demonstrated is his response to the announcement on 1 June of the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. His brief statement on this issue was accompanied by the announcement of an EU legislative proposal on decarbonising transport to enable the EU to achieve its climate target.
“I want Europe to be the leader when it comes to the fight against climate change. Last year, we set the global rules of the game with the Paris Agreement ratified here, in this very House. Set against the collapse of ambition in the United States, Europe will ensure we make our planet great again. It is the shared heritage of all of humanity”, Juncker stated.
The letter of intent, sent the same day to Parliament President Antonio Tajani and Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas, on the work programme for the next 16 months includes, in addition to finalising the climate and clean energy packages before the end of 2018, presentation of legislative proposals on: - CO2 emissions standards for cars and vans; - energy efficiency and emissions standards for lorries, buses and coaches; - clean vehicles. An initiative was also announced to speed up delivery of alternative fuels infrastructure.
In the course of the debate, Gianni Pittella, the leader of the S&D Group, argued for the EU to be ambitious on climate and sustainable development. “Let us show Donald Trump that we can reduce the intensity of disasters”, he said.
Climate NGOs criticised Juncker’s speech as being too general and were particularly disappointed that no mention was made of raising the EU climate targets. “When it comes to climate change, Mr. Juncker sounds like a broken record. He restates the EU’s commitment to the Paris Agreement, but then fails to give any substance to these words. Our biggest disappointment from this morning is that he failed to acknowledge that standing up for the Paris Agreement means stepping up and committing the EU to higher climate targets”, commented Wendel Trio, Director of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, in a press release. (Original version on French by Aminata Niang)