On Wednesday 19 September, NGOs expressed indignation at an internal BusinessEurope document leaked to the press the day before a meeting of the energy/climate working group of the above organisation. The reason for this was because it shows that European industry’s communication strategy is to show goodwill while encouraging the EU to stand by its 2030 objective (a reduction of 40% in greenhouse gas emissions compared with 1990).
The internal document underlined that the line to take when it comes to EU climate policy should be “rather positive as long as it remains as a political statement with no implication on the range of 2030 EU legislations".
This comes at a time when public consultation is underway to raise the EU objective to 45% at least, as envisaged by Miguel Arias Cañete, Commissioner for Climate Action. This toughening is possible if the new renewable energy objectives (at least 32% of the energy mix) and energy efficiency (32%) are implemented (see EUROPE 12078, 12045). The news has scandalised Greenpeace.
“The European Commission has a responsibility to move forward and ignore the spin, the lies and the delaying tactics of Europe’s dinosaur corporations. It would be irresponsible to fall for this scaremongering and ignore the huge economic, health and environmental damages of climate change”, said Tara Connolly, an expert at Greenpeace, speaking on Wednesday.
That same day, BusinessEurope sought to make it clear that, if the EU is ambitious, then the EU’s major trading partners must also be so. According to the organisation “the 40% emissions reduction by 2030 is an ambitious target. (...) The most important thing between now and 2030 is to focus on a successful implementation that gives investment certainty”. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had not said anything different in August (see EUROPE 12083). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)