COP28 began on November 30 and will be held until December 12 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The European Union is present in force with the President of the Commission, Emmanuel Macron, Pedro Sanchez, Giorgia Meloni… but in the notable absence of Joe Biden and Xi Jinping. It calls on its international partners to respect ambitious objectives and to go beyond. But is she still the world environmental champion?
Are the Twenty-Seven, or even the European parliamentarians, not in the process of going back on the texts of a Green Pact which is very protective of the environment and the climate, but too restrictive in the eyes of certain industrialists and the agricultural world? So what can Europe expect from this COP? We talk about it with MEP Pascal Canfin, from the Renew Europe Group, who chairs the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Commission.
Ecological efforts
“An even greater international mobilization than today” is what Pascal Canfin expects, because “climate disruption is here,” he notes. And to insist: “We must keep it below the famous 2°C warming mark so that it does not become climatic chaos.” According to the European Copernicus service, the Earth briefly crossed this famous critical threshold. Pascal Canfin confesses, “it is partly too late: scientists have been warning us for forty years and political and economic leaders as a whole have not taken action that is up to what is needed do”, but he assures him that “with the Green Deal, the European Green Deal, we are trying to make up for this delay, to accelerate to meet the objective that we have set ourselves, in particular with the Paris agreements “.
These efforts include doubling the share of renewable energies by 2030, decarbonizing the future automobile fleet by 2035… “The Green Deal is 75 laws. And when you change 75 laws at the same time, it’s is a systemic change, (…) which is necessary to achieve the climate objectives essential for our future.”
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According to the figures, the EU will not reach its CO emissions reduction target2 by 2030. Pascal Canfin confirms: “We are not there yet. And that is why we continue to change the rules of the game to get there. This is the very essence of the Green Deal. (…) All the regulations that we pass have a single objective: to reach the famous -55% to be aligned with the commitments that we have made ourselves. As proof, “we are the only area in the world” to have a CO price2 on industries at around 80 to 100 euros per tonne and to have created a “carbon tax at the borders”. “It’s exemplary! (…) We really have nothing to be ashamed of our action and our climate leadership.”
“Firepower of the fossil industry”
But some oppose the appointment of Dutchman Wopke Hoekstra as Commissioner for Climate Action, arguing that he worked in the oil industry. Pascal Canfin wants to be reassuring: “He made commitments and if we validated him as Commissioner, it is precisely because he responded positively to the questions we asked him in an extremely clear manner, and in particular on the decline in fossil fuel consumption in Europe.”
Because the issue of fossil fuels is central in the fight against global warming. And this COP28, which takes place in an oil-producing country, has some skeptics. But for Pascal Canfin, precisely, “it’s more difficult, but much more interesting, much more strategic to talk about it where it’s happening, that is to say in Saudi Arabia, in the Emirates, in Qatar… Because that’s where the firepower of the fossil fuel industry is.” It is also, according to him, the way to work on the strategic sovereignty of the European Union: “Reducing our dependence on oil and gas is obviously good for the climate, but it is also good for our independence and our geopolitical strength.”
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Pascal Canfin’s displayed optimism clashes with the latest European decisions, which are more reminiscent of an unraveling of the Green Deal: torpedoing of the “Restoration of Nature” law, indefinite postponement of the reform of regulations on chemicals, authorization of the use of glyphosate extended by ten years, the exceptions of the regulation on packaging and the rejection of the regulation reducing pesticides… Pascal Canfin agrees, but is delighted that the “restoration of Nature” law has been passed, even if he would have preferred it “more ambitious. (…) But let’s stop seeing the glass half empty. (…) We are the only ones in the world to have a law that fights against imported deforestation, and Forests are a major climate issue.”
Despite everything, heads of state, including President Emmanuel Macron, have called for a regulatory pause on environmental matters, due to certain regulations that they consider too burdensome, and a certain European right is stepping up to the plate. For Pascal Canfin, “the fact that today some people say that we are doing too much (…) clearly proves that we are moving forward much faster than before”. He also wishes to recall that an “alliance of the right and the extreme right” voted against the reduction of pesticides. “Everyone takes their responsibilities, that’s also democracy. And we will obviously say it again and again during the campaign” for the European elections.
“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose”
Dutch far-right Geert Wilders came out on top in his country’s elections. His displayed climate skepticism and his desire to call for a referendum on his country’s exit from the EU, “Nexit”, make some fear a change of gear in Europe. For Pascal Canfin, the result of the elections in the Netherlands shows that a “victory for the extreme right is possible, but it is not inevitable. (…) We must be aware of the risk, but it is not we should not overestimate it either (…) and I am absolutely not certain that Geert Wilders will find the majority to carry out the program, because that is not the program of any of the other parties” with which he could do a coalition.
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He also recalls the recent elections in Poland, where the far right has been in power for years, and during which “it was the pro-European parties committed to the environment which won. (…) It is is a battle. Sometimes we win it, sometimes we lose it. It’s called democracy. And that’s why one of the major issues of this European election will be to know if Europe remains in a logic of construction of Europe as a power facing China, facing the United States, to exist in the 21st century all together, or if on the contrary we fragment, we empty the European project from within and objectively, we will come out of history. That’s what elections are about.”
France’s “balanced” position
The list of the Macronist Renaissance party for the 2024 European elections, for which Pascal Canfin was once tipped as head of the list, will be led by Stéphane Séjourné, current President of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament. Was he too green to carry this list? “No, my assessment is that of the presidential majority. Everyone is proud of the carbon tax at the borders, of the industrial transformation that we are carrying out. All of this is thanks to our action. And it is mine, that of the President of the Republic and that of the majority.”
He also strongly opposes criticism of France’s abstention in the vote on the extension of the use of glyphosate proposed by the European Commission. Indeed, having not achieved the necessary qualified majority during this vote, no agreement was found, and the Commission therefore de facto extended its use for ten years. He affirms that France is “the only country in Europe which has reduced glyphosate by 30% in recent years. (…) And if the text did not find a majority against, it is not our fault, it is that of those who voted for this text.”
And he reaffirms France’s “balanced” position: “We cannot do without glyphosate overnight: farmers do not always have alternatives everywhere. On the other hand, where we have alternatives, it “We have to do without it. That’s the French line, and unfortunately, it was not supported, and I regret it,” he concludes.
Program prepared by Sophie Samaille, Perrine Desplats, Juliette Laurain and Isabelle Romero