On Wednesday 19 July, members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) held talks with the European Commission on the transport-related aspects of the amended delegated act relating to the climate aspect of the taxonomy. In particular, they voiced their criticism of greenwashing.
In June, the Commission presented targeted amendments to the delegated act of the EU climate taxonomy that extend the economic activities contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation that were not included until now, particularly in the transport sector (see EUROPE 13200/14).
Like their colleagues on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) (see EUROPE 13217/15), the TRAN MEPs expressed their dissatisfaction.
For Ciarán Cuffe (Greens/EFA, Irish), the Commission’s proposals involve a great deal of greenwashing. “The taxonomy does not determine what you can or can’t invest in, but rather it is intended to be a reliable science based guide to what investments are sustainable with the inclusion of gas and nuclear and now aviation and shipping”, he said.
He described as “Orwellian” the use of language in the text, which “skews the spirit and the letter of the regulation”, in particular because of “the ability to label purchases of marginally more efficient planes that will rely almost entirely on fossil fuels as substantially contributing to climate mitigation”.
“In this taxonomy regulation, more attention should be paid to aviation and to maritime transport so that we can have a full basket of measures for all modes of transport”, argued Petar Vitanov (S&D, Bulgarian). Sharing the same view, Marian-Jean Marinescu (EPP, Romanian) insisted that “mobility and connectivity are a right, not a luxury”.
“We have tightened the criteria proposed initially by the platform in several areas, but still trying to make sure that the criteria remain achievable and thereby effective in helping to ensure the kind of transition that we want to see happen on the ground”, responded Hannes Huhtaniemi, Policy Officer at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union (DG FISMA).
He also pointed out that the criteria would be reviewed periodically, since the taxonomy regulation stipulates that the criteria relating to transition activities must be re-examined every 3 years to ensure that they remain compatible with our environmental objectives.
The delegated acts still have to be approved by the European Parliament and the EU Council before they can be applied. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)