On Thursday 4 September, members of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee (ENVI) debated the report by Ondřej Knotek (PfE, Czech) on the proposal presented on 2 July (see EUROPE 13672/1) by the European Commission amending the EU’s ‘climate law’ to introduce a target of a 90% reduction in the EU’s net greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 compared to 1990 levels.
The rapporteur proposed that the text be rejected. In an explanatory note published in July (see EUROPE 13689/19), the rapporteur considered that “the urgency of adopting a binding target for 2040 before COP30 is unjustified”.
On Thursday, Ondřej Knotek defended this position, saying that “the rejection of this new climate target is not an act of activism, as some claim. (...) It is rather a justified and responsible decision on the direction to take in Europe”.
In his view, the EU is already suffering from “over-regulation (of) taxation and (of) redistribution based on ideology”. He denounced the proposal as “empty”, containing only “hallow phrases”.
However, this rejection did not find any support outside of the sovereignist and conservative elected representatives.
Peter Liese (EPP, German), replacing shadow rapporteur Lídia Pereira (Portuguese), disagreed: “We do not support the proposal to reject. We really want to work constructively. (...) The transition must continue, not just for the climate, but also for businesses”.
For the Social Democrats, Javi López (S&D, Spanish) described the draft report as “totally irresponsible and ill-informed”, seeing it as “extremely dangerous for our economies and for future generations”.
The environmentalists also strongly opposed the rapporteur. Lena Schilling (Greens/EFA, German) felt that the rapporteur’s text “makes a mockery of the public” and pointed out that “the scientific report has repeatedly stated that a net reduction of 90-95% by 2040 is needed”.
Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (Renew Europe, Dutch) said that “the probability of the threat of climate change is 100%. (...) COP30 (...) will only be a success if we have a very ambitious European objective”.
Niels Fuglsang (S&D, Danish) pointed out that 90% was a minimum accepted by all the “constructive” groups and that this objective was essential to guarantee long-term predictability for economic players.
However, several elected representatives from the ranks of the sovereignist and conservative right supported Ondřej Knotek’s report. Mathilde Androuët (PfE, French) denounced an objective that was “unrealistic, ideological, unscientific and destructive to our economies”. Viktória Ferenc (PfE, Hungarian) felt that it “represents too great a change for companies and individuals”.
In July, the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and The Left Groups launched an accelerated timetable to regain control of the dossier, with the tabling of amendments scheduled for 8 September and a vote in committee for 23 September.
The report: https://aeur.eu/f/ia1 (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)