Environmental NGOs mobilised for the climate well before the European election campaign, saw their hopes heightened by the breakthrough of the Greens, which marked the provisional results of the election unveiled on 26 May, in response to citizens' concerns (see EUROPE 12263/1).
If the European Parliament is fragmented, with the two major groups (EPP and S&D) now unable to achieve an absolute majority between them, there is one area of action - the climate - in which unity should be the order of the day, said CAN (Climate Action Network) Europe on Monday 27 May, given the climate emergency. Hence his appeal to the parties to do, for the climate, a common cause.
"European citizens expect the EU to act on climate change. We now need a broad alliance of political parties, including liberals and conservatives, that recognise the climate emergency and the urgency to act. This starts with ensuring that EU climate policies and targets are in line with the commitment of the Paris Agreement to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C and protect European citizens from devastating climate impacts", commented Wendel Trio, director of the NGO network.
And to recall the five concrete measures called for by a broad coalition of hundreds of NGOs, local authorities, trade unions, companies and European citizens to achieve this (see EUROPE 12249/13).
Same tone at Greenpeace. "Change is coming. Europeans care about the future of European democracy and about the existential environmental threats we face. In many countries, parties that promised to respond to the climate crisis and ecological breakdown have won more seats", says Greenpeace European Office spokeswoman Laura Ullmann. To meet citizens' demand for "a socially just Europe that takes drastic action to prevent climate breakdown. The EU must act now".
According to Laurence Tubiana, President and Executive Director of the European Climate Foundation, who was a French negotiator at COP 21, "Climate is the defining issue of this election (....) The response to the climate crisis is now at the top of the public agenda in Europe. We must act, and we must act now". (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)