In a debate organized by Euronews at the World Economic Forum in Davos, politicians and business leaders give us their views on how the European Green Deal retains or does not retain economic relevance against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine .
Driven by its ambition to make Europe carbon neutral by 2050, the European Commission has led the deployment of decisive green legislation during its current mandate. It also aims to mobilize at least 1,000 billion euros of sustainable investments over the next decade. With the European Green Deal facing political headwinds ahead of the 2024 elections, and Russia’s war in Ukraine changing the situation, what does its future look like?
We are talking about it on the sidelines of the 2024 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) with the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakisthe Executive Vice-President responsible for the European Green Deal of the European Commission, Maroš ŠefčovičEster Baiget, President and CEO of Novozymes (Denmark) and member of the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, and Maxim Timchenko, CEO of DTEK, the largest private electricity supplier in Ukraine.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: “Some of the Green Deal solutions have deep economic significance”
Greek Prime Minister Kyriákos Mitsotakis remains “optimistic about the future of the Green Deal”. Citing the floods his country suffered last year, he assures that such events “underline the need to play a leading role in this transition”.
“From (the start of discussions on the Green Deal)we suffered a geopolitical shock and it became very clear that some of the solutions (which he offers) also have deep economic significance,” he believes. “Just look at Greece for example: our penetration rate of renewable energies and their low cost; so there are hours of the day when we have negative prices,” he indicates. “So I think everyone agrees that we need to move forward with this agenda,” underlines the Greek political leader.
Ester Baiget: “Useless obstacles” for companies that innovate in green solutions
The President and CEO of Novozymes assures: “The Green Deal moves us all in the right direction.”
Ester Baiget continues: “Investments must therefore be oriented towards the future. Every investment must be dedicated to green energies, for solar, wind, methane and “Power to X” (…) It has to be a gradual evolution and it will generate growth and jobs,” she believes.
“As businesses, we have a responsibility to sit down at the table and show what we think are good solutions, but there are unnecessary obstacles that make things more difficult for us for nothing,” she tempers, before citing the cumbersomeness of European regulations: “It takes six years to obtain a permit for a wind turbine and six to eight years to register a microbe intended to replace fertilizers and promote sustainable agriculture, compared to two years (for the same procedure) in the USA,” she points out.
Ester Baiget also evokes the “competition withthe IRA (Inflation Reduction Act), from a subsidy point of view. There is an influx of European investment into the United States; as a European company we invest in the United States, but it’s not because of subsidies, it’s because of demand and because it’s faster there,” underlines the business manager.
Maroš Šefčovič: “The EU is listening to the CEOs of European companies”
While the Executive Vice-President responsible for the European Green Deal of the European Commission describes himself as “happy warrior” as a staunch defender of the EU’s sustainable agenda, Maroš Šefčovič recalls that the Green Deal is “our growth strategy” while recognizing the existence of a “huge international competition on what I would describe as future-oriented technologies”.
Mentioning the massive subsidies offered by the IRA to the United States, but also, of course, those by which China supports its exports, the vice-president ensures that the EU “adjusts” its policies, before giving one example : “I was very happy that (recently) “We have taken this first historic decision, authorizing state aid to the company Northvolt so that it can build its next “gigafactory” in Europe and not in the United States.”
Finally, Maroš Šefčovič assured that he was listening to “CEOs of European companies” about the “technological blockages” that they may face in the EU.
“We proposed the law called the Net Zero Industry Regulations: a lot of it talks about what we can do to speed up the permitting process,” he indicates. “We want to use the principle of the overriding public interest, which would help us move much faster,” he assures.
Maxim Timchenko: “The Green Deal will be a driving force for Ukraine”
CEO of the Ukrainian electricity supplier DTEK, Maxim Timchenko assures that “all European energy companies (including his own) have integrated the objectives and mechanisms of the Green Deal into their strategy. But, from Ukraine’s point of view, it is even more important,” he continues. “In the second month of the large-scale invasion, we asked the world to help us, especially in synchronizing our electricity and connecting Ukrainian electricity with Europeans,” he recalls before adding: “The request was: Please help us now and we will help you in the future, to strengthen the EU’s energy security and bring more green energy from Ukraine.”
“We have enormous potential in wind and solar energy, we have developed infrastructure, our company built a 140 megawatt wind farm during the war, investing 200 million euros and just ago a month, we announced the second phase of this wind farm, investing 450 million, with the support of Denmark and the supply of wind turbines from Vestas,” he describes.
Maxim Timchenko concludes: “The Green Deal and all (his) goals will be a driving force for Ukraine and I think that most of the economic reforms that we need to carry out, in one way or another, are linked to the European Green Deal. These are essentially the foundations of our future.” he says.
Watch our full debate in the video player above.