European Union, Despite a Growing Backlash, Forges Ahead With Costly Green Initiatives and ‘Net-Zero’ Climate Goals

BRUSSELS — The European Commission, in a decision that will put into sharp relief the thinness of the EU’s democratic mandate, is sticking with its net-zero emissions goals despite a growing backlash across Europe — described by Reuters as a “greenlash” — as low-income communities and small businesses reel from the burdens of the bloc’s environmental policies. Several European countries are introducing measures to combat climate change in line with the European Union’s net-zero agenda. Measures include cuts in fertilizer runoff from farms and phase-outs of oil and gas heating. Despite pushback from residents, Brussels’s goals are unchanged. In a signal of the EU’s view of the rising opposition, its environmental commissioner, Virginijus Sinkevicius, dismissed the objections to its regulatory policies as being the product of “political debate.”Even a paragon of the European establishment like President Macron of France recently conceded the need for a “regulatory break” on green issues — though he does support the measures. “We’re ahead of the Americans, the Chinese, or any other global power in regulatory terms,” he told industrial executives. Rather than adding new rules, he added, “now we need to execute” the ones already on the books.Mr. Macron has been joined by Prime Minister Meloni of Italy, who earlier this year asked for a delay in the implementation of new energy-efficient building construction rules, saying they are too expensive for the government and for homeowners. Prime Minister De Croo of Belgium has also asked for a European Union pause on environmental policies, claiming legislation should not be “overloaded” with strict environmental measures. The decision of Brussels to keep its regulatory goals in the face of this growing “greenlash” reflects the EU officers’ detachment from the citizens of its various state member countries — as well as their distance from more responsive elected officials like Ms. Meloni and Mr. De Croo. It is one of the features of the bloc that led Britain to leave the union by voting for independence in 2016.The members of the European Commission are not directly elected by citizens of the European Union. The commissioners are named by the European Parliament and the European Council. The Parliament is elected, and the Council comprises the heads of state or top officers of the government. “We are not going to dilute our ambition because it would be like shooting ourselves in the foot,” a European Commission executive vice president, Maros Sefcovic, told reporters last week. As recently as 2019, he ran for president of his own country but was defeated in a landslide.Mr. Sefcovic of Slovakia was appointed by President Von der Leyen of the European Commission last month to replace a Dutch politician, Frans Timmermans, who resigned to run for prime minister of the Netherlands. Mr. Sefcovic will inherit Mr. Timmermans’s role as leader of the EU’s Green Deal, which calls for a “climate-neutral” continent by 2050, defined as “no net emissions of greenhouse gases.” The costly climate change initiatives are likely to be a major political factor as voters head to national polls in some EU nations this coming year. In addition to the European Parliament elections next June, Poland and the Netherlands will hold general elections before the end of the year.This is the context in which a backlash against climate change policies is growing all over Europe. Poland’s governing Law and Justice party has filed a suit demanding that the EU cancel three of its climate change schemes, including a complete ban on sales of new CO2-emitting cars by 2035. The measure “imposes excessive burdens connected with the transition towards zero-emission mobility on European citizens,” according to its petition.Poland is also disputing a policy that sets national emission-cutting targets and a reform to the European Union carbon market, which may lead to a “decrease in mining employment,” the challenge says. The Law and Justice party is currently leading the polls ahead of the October elections.The European Union Green Deal aims to eliminate net emissions of greenhouse gasses by 2050. The “Fit for 55 package” hopes to convince member states to cut net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent from the area’s 1990 level by the next decade. In the Netherlands, a farmer’s protest party, the BoerBurgerBeweging, opposes government plans to cut nitrogen emissions by half by 2030. The party shook up the country in March after winning 16 seats in the 75-person senate. Farmers in the Netherlands say that the environmental scheme would be harmful to jobs and food production. “People who provide our daily food are dismissed as animal abusers, poisoners, soil destroyers, and environmental polluters,” the leader of the BoerBurgerBeweging, Caroline van der Plas, told the Dutch parliament in April. Currently, her party is running fourth in the scheduled November parliamentary election. Farmers in Belgium are also fighting back against the European Union’s intentions to cut nitrogen emissions to protect water quality in the bloc. The nitrogen agreement will financially affect young farmers, according to a Belgium-based organization of young farmers, Groene Kring. The policy “will cause a generation of young farmers to be lost,” it says in a statement.While the organization has many objections to the EU’s agreement, it has also presented sustainable alternatives, the vice chairman of Groene Kring, Maarten Moermans, said in the statement. “One must realize very well that the policy maker will have to farm himself if there are no young farmers left tomorrow,” Mr. Moermans added.A spokesman for Climate Action and Energy for the European Commission, Tim McPhie, did not respond to The New York Sun’s questions regarding the backlash against the policies other than to confirm that the European Green Deal remains a priority. In Germany, the Green Party has been losing support since last year, surpassed in polls by the right-wing Alternative for Germany party, which is running against the notion that human activity is causing climate change. The AfD is currently running second in the polls, while the Green Party is fourth.Germans fear the rising costs of climate policies and are beginning to oppose some of the Green Party’s measures, including one plan to end free parking in order to promote public transportation and another that would ban most new oil and gas home heating systems from 2024. Germany’s plans to reduce emissions are not being implemented correctly, a member of the AfD party who is a candidate for the European Parliament election in 2024, Lars Haise, tells the Sun. “Germany’s approach is costing its people prosperity,” Mr. Haise says. He believes the net-zero goal can only be achieved by improved technology, which includes the latest generation of nuclear power plants. “This ensures affordable energy prices and the competitiveness of Germany and the entire European Union,” Mr. Haise says.

European Union, Despite a Growing Backlash, Forges Ahead With Costly Green Initiatives and ‘Net-Zero’ Climate Goals

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