The Bonn session and upcoming international gatherings, such as the G7 and the Petersberg Dialogue, are critical for getting an ambitious and just outcome at COP27. Climate impacts, rising energy prices, energy insecurity and fossil-fuel related wars demonstrate the urgent need to move quickly from fossil fuels to renewable energies to bring the world in line with the goal to keep warming below 1.5°C and to address climate harm. The EU is critical for this, both in terms of domestic mitigation ambition and increasing support to developing countries.
Wednesday was a critical moment in the European Parliament (EP) for advancing climate legislation, and for implementing, and hopefully overachieving, the block’s NDC. Fossil fuel and other industry lobbyists who profit from the harmful carbon pyromania fuelling the climate crisis laid the tinder which then lit political fireworks and drama. The EP almost sold out climate protection for big polluters’ demands. After conservative and right wing Parties in the EP voted for an insufficient reduction target under the Emission Trading System (ETS) reform and a looonnnnggg (!) hand-out of emission allowances to polluting industries (to 2034), more progressive Parties had to decide: No deal now, or a bad deal? Fortunately, they said no, avoided a watered down version, and now viable compromises will be renegotiated. This risks a dangerous delay in the process, but it’s also a wake-up call. MEPs need to recommit to the Paris Agreement and act on the climate emergency, for the benefit of people in and outside Europe instead of giving in to the polluters.
After the no vote, other parts of the Fit for 55 legislative package (such as the Effort Sharing Regulation or the Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry rules) received approval, with some caveats and still insufficient ambition, but also with good elements (like agreeing that only cars with zero emissions can be sold after 2035). While others including the internationally relevant Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and the European Social Fund vote were postponed, following the ETS rejection due to close linkages.
After this dramatic reset, negotiations must double down on efforts for a stronger, more ambitious Fit for 55 without siding with industry lobbyists, starting with the EU Council and Environment ministers meetings in June. This keeps open the possibility that the EU comes to Sharm El-Sheikh with progress on legislation underpinning its NDC, and the potential to move beyond 55%. So ECO readers, if you run into EU delegates in the hallways in Bonn, remind them what climate leadership means!