EU green recovery package sets a marker for the
world
The bloc is showing the way in rebuilding
coronavirus-ravaged economies to fight the climate emergency
Coronavirus will not harm climate goals, EU promises
Damian
Carrington Environment editor
@dpcarrington
Published
onThu 28 May 2020 17.52 BST
The
European commission has put down a marker for the world with its green recovery
package. It sets a high standard for other nations, using the rebuilding of
coronavirus-ravaged economies to tackle the even greater threat of the climate
emergency, in principle at least.
With the
world fast approaching the point when climate chaos becomes inevitable, how the
trillions of recovery dollars – or euros – are spent is a use-it-or-lose-it
moment, so what the EU does really matters. Climate change is a global crisis,
meaning all nations must act and some must lead the way.
Under
Donald Trump, the US is slashing green protections while the biggest polluter,
China, is sending mixed messages by backing coal power stations as part of its
recovery. The UK, host of the next critical UN summit, has been all but silent.
The EU’s
plan seeks to pour money into emissions-busting sectors: €91bn (£81bn) a year
for home energy efficiency and green heating, €25bn of renewable energy, and
€20bn for clean cars over two years, plus 2m charging points in five years. Up
to €60bn will go to zero-emissions trains and the production of 1m tonnes of
clean hydrogen is planned.
At least a
million green jobs will be created, with workers in polluting industries helped
into new roles, a critical part of the plan. Increasing the Just Transition
Fund more than fivefold to €40bn minimises the risk of protests against green
measures, especially in states with the heaviest coal use such as Poland,
Germany and Romania, which will be among the biggest recipients. This is
politically necessary, despite investment in the green economy already being a
no-brainer.
The EU plan
may even have a direct impact on the rest of the world, with a border tax on
carbon-intensive industrial imports from other nations potentially raising up
to €14bn.
But despite
the European commission saying “public investments in the recovery should
respect the green oath to ‘do no harm’”, critics worry there are no hard
guarantees against the money seeping into dirty projects. The Covid-19 crisis
has seen polluters lobbying hard for bailouts.
The Just
Transition Fund will be routed through the European Investment Bank, but
campaigners say its climate criteria allow the backing of gas projects that
would lock in emissions for years. Another key fund, the €150bn React EU
programme, allows member states to decide how to spend the money – most of the
almost €2tn in coronavirus rescue funds spent by EU nations so far has had no
green guarantees.
Worse, say
critics, climate conditions on large parts of the main EU budget have been
lifted for three years because of the pandemic. The proportion of the budget
reserved for climate projects remains stuck at 25%, despite demands by the
European parliament and many others to raise it.
The
commission rejects these criticisms, saying the “objective of the green economy
is present throughout the whole management of the funds”. Whether this
oversight proves effective will be the critical test.
Nonetheless,
green-leaning business and investor groups have welcomed the recovery package,
calling it bold and substantive. To turn it into reality, there will now be
weeks of wrangling between EU countries to finalise the deal.
We must
hope that they, and the rest of the world’s nations, in turn, bear in mind the
words of the EU commission president, Ursula von der Leyen: “Sooner or later we
will find a vaccine for the coronavirus. But there is no vaccine for climate
change. Therefore [we] need a recovery plan designed for the future.”
EU pledges
coronavirus recovery plan will not harm climate goals
Commission argues it can raise €150bn to fund
greener transport, cleaner industry and renovated homes
Jennifer
Rankin in Brussels
Thu 28 May
2020 13.18 BSTLast modified on Thu 28 May 2020 18.15 BST
Senior officials have pledged that the European
Union’s recovery plan will “do no harm” to the bloc’s landmark goals to tackle
the climate crisis and threats to the natural world.
Following
the unveiling of a €750bn (£671bn) recovery plan to pull EU economies out of
the deep economic downturn caused by coronavirus, the European commission
announced further details of green spending on Thursday.
The
commission argues it can raise €150bn in public and private money, up from a
pre-crisis goal of €100bn, to help fund greener transport, cleaner industry and
renovated homes. At the heart of the plan, the EU proposes to more than
quadruple to €40bn a “just transition fund” aimed at moving coal-dependent
regions away from fossil fuels.
The biggest
beneficiaries would be large coal-producing countries, such as Poland, which
could get €8bn in grants, Germany (€5.2bn) and Romania (€4.5bn).
Frans
Timmermans, the European commission vice-president who oversees the European
green deal, said the EU needed to ensure it was not putting money into the
industries of the past.
“For many
regions and companies including those relying on coal production and carbon-intensive
industrial processes, this economic crisis has raised an existential question,”
he told journalists. “Do we rebuild what we have before or do we seize the
opportunity to restructure and create different and new jobs?”
“In all the
actions we are going to take, we apply the ‘do no harm’ principle so you can’t
have investment that takes us in a different direction.”
Accompanying
the €750bn coronavirus recovery plan, the commission has also announced a
revamped proposal for a €1.1tn EU budget for 2021-2027. That plan preserves a
promise that 25% of EU spending would be dedicated to climate policy, which
campaign groups say is not enough.
European
governments have been wrangling over the long-term budget for two years,
leaving the EU institutions with the daunting task of finding agreement on the
overall €1.85tn spending plans over the summer.
Green
campaigners said the €750bn recovery plan lacked conditions to prevent
governments from spending funds on fossil-fuel industries. “It’s right for the EU
to act in solidarity injecting billions to resuscitate our economies while
emphasising a green recovery,” said Jagoda Munic, the director of Friends of
the Earth Europe.
“But it’s
ludicrous not to put any conditions on these funds. Our common future will be
shaped by how this money is spent, and allowing strings-free handouts to
polluting industries, or corporations who dodge tax or have poor labour
practices, will not rebuild the sustainable, fair, caring world we need.”
William
Todts, the director of the NGO Transport and Environment, said that there was
“a worrying lack of detail” on what green investment actually meant. “This plan
leaves the door wide open for polluting engines and even aeroplanes to get
stimulus money. That’s completely unacceptable.”
The
commission rejected those claims. “It is completely clear that the greening of
the projects and the objective of the green economy is present throughout the
whole management of the funds,” said Elisa Ferreira, the EU commissioner in
charge of distributing funds to less well-off regions.
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