The future European Commissioner for Employment, Nicolas Schmit, described the European Green Deal as a "major project for economic and social transformation", stressing its fundamentally political and profoundly economic nature, on Wednesday 16 October, at a conference on the financing of the Green Deal organised on the initiative of Pierre Larrouturou (S&D, France) and a dozen other S&D MEPs from nine different countries.
"The economic system as it works today, as it is based on the short term, will not help us solve the problem of climate change ", said Mr Schmit. And he added: "It is not those who watch the stock market every morning who will help us take effective action against climate change.
Statements that received applause of support in the European Parliament Chamber, particularly from the many young people and members of various climate movements participating in the event.
In addition, while he said he was proud to be part of a Commission that, with the Green Deal, "has set itself a major objective", the Luxembourger stressed above all that this ambitious programme can only be achieved if the European Union provides the financial resources. "In the end, what matters are the means we come up with", he said.
Pierre Larrouturou had no shortage of ideas on how to finance the Green Deal. Recalling that, according to a report by the European Court of Auditors published on 20 September 2017, Member States should collectively invest €1,115 billion per year between 2021 and 2030 to achieve their greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, the Frenchman presented a package of three proposals.
First, he suggests adopting a "climate law" that would prohibit banks and private and public insurance companies from investing in fossil fuels, in order to redirect investments towards renewable energies. Secondly, he calls for the creation of a European Climate Bank that would provide €300 billion in loans each year exclusively for climate change. Finally, he advocates for the establishment of an annual "climate budget" of 100 billion managed by the European Union. The latter would be separate from the current EU budget and would be financed by creating a new European tax that would only apply to the profits of large and medium-sized companies.
As the conference closed with a video by Greta Thunberg, the young climate activists rushed out of the chamber. They then began a sit-in at the heart of the Parliament, to express their fears that the next Commission would not be up to the challenges of climate change and called for a real European Green Deal. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)