Climate package under attack: “Not written in stone”

#Climate #package #attack #written #stone
share-arrowDela

unsaveSpara

expand-left

full screen Farmers from several European countries have recently protested in Brussels against what they see as onerous EU rules on climate and the environment, among other things. Archive image. Photo: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP/TT

Wishful thinking or reality? The EU’s climate policy has found itself in the firing line ahead of the elections in June – but is it possible to dismantle the legal package?

Farmers are protesting and parties on the right are mobilizing against climate policy. But when SD’s top name for the EU elections in June, Charlie Weimers, wants to tear up the Fit for 55 measure package, climate minister Romina Pourmokhtari (L) calls it “Swexit fantasies”.

With its climate package, the EU has taken big steps towards the goal of reducing emissions by 55 percent by 2030. The legislation in general is hammered out and must be introduced in the member states.

Braking?

At the same time, opposition is vocal against what critics see as overly onerous measures. But completely scrapping Fit for 55 is wishful thinking, says Naghmeh Nasiritousi, researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute and Linköping University.

– Tearing up the whole package will be difficult, unless you think that the EU will leave the Paris Agreement and that is not on the map. But depending on which politicians decide after the election, there is a risk that climate policy will be slowed down, she says.

– There are flexibilities in the package that give the opportunity to delay or postpone things. With regard to new market mechanisms, for example, it has been written that the introduction can be postponed if the price increase is already very high.

Built-in revisions are a way that makes it possible to change parts of Fit for 55, according to Mats Engström, senior advisor at the research institute Sieps.

– Then the question is whether there is a political majority to change everything. I understand that there is currently strong support for achieving at least a 55 percent reduction by 2030. But it is certainly possible to change things, he says.

– You cannot see it as if this package is written in stone. It depends on the EU election, how the countries’ governments act and whether they meet the goals at home.

Review

The climate goals for 2030 and 2050 are written into the EU’s climate law. It also has built-in reviews.

– I don’t think people are that keen on changing the numbers themselves. But there may be discussion about partially achieving the goals through measures outside the EU, says Engström.

A great many of the decisions taken by the EU will be implemented, according to Engström.

– It is a big climatic step to do so. Whether there will be weakenings on some points depends on whether there will be a swing to the right in the parliamentary elections, he says.

– The risk then, apart from the climate, is that in other parts of the world you get the impression that the EU did not meet its goals. Even those who don’t want much climate policy will be able to say “look, the EU didn’t do everything they promised”.

FACT

The EU’s climate goals

The EU’s overall climate goal is to be climate neutral by 2050 at the latest.

In 2030, the EU’s net emissions must be at least 55 percent lower than they were in 1990. Work is also underway to produce a milestone target for 2040.

Read more