Ahead of the European Commission's post-Covid recovery plan, due on 6 May, the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament published, on Tuesday 28 April, its own €5 trillion 'Recovery and Resilience Plan', based on the three pillars of sustainable development (economic, environmental and social), with the European Green Deal at its heart.
"We want to focus on a recovery that puts people and the planet first, preserves the climate for future generations and creates new jobs", say group co-chairs Ska Keller and Philippe Lamberts.
For them, in fact, "it would be unacceptable to squander our limited financial resources to perpetuate a fragile economic model, which is destructive for the planet and generates inequalities".
This plan must commit all sectors of economic activity to keep global warming below 1.5°C, prioritise the protection of biodiversity, the reduction of pollution, the implementation of the Green Deal and the circular economy as drivers of the new European economy, and end subsidies to unsustainable businesses.
Climate. It advocates including in the 'climate law' the objective of reducing the energy consumption of the entire European economy by 65% by 2030 and achieving climate neutrality by 2040 at the latest.
Biodiversity. It calls for an investment of €50 billion for the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy.
Sustainable food. It plans to relocate and protect food production. It advocates reducing reliance on inputs in the food sector, in particular by supporting a target of 50% reduction in pesticide use by 2025 (-80% by 2030 and phasing out pesticide use by 2035) and 50% for synthetic fertilisers by 2030 in the future EU 'farm to fork' strategy.
To read the Greens/EFA plan: https://bit.ly/2KCdgZz (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)