Don’t stop now on climate policy, scientists tell EU ahead of elections

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The EU must double annual emissions cuts and move fast to pass existing green plans into law if it is to meet its climate targets, an independent adviser to the bloc has warned ahead of parliamentary elections in June.

A report by the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change on Thursday called on the bloc to implement previously announced plans to support clean technologies and the development of critical minerals as well as reforms to energy taxation. 

“We cannot afford to lean back now,” said Ottmar Edenhofer, a leading German climate economist who chairs the board of scientists and economists. The EU “needs to provide long-term policy signals based on long-term plans for the net zero transition”, the report said. 

Parliamentarians will meet for the last time in April ahead of elections in June, when rightwing parties that want to slow the pace of progress are expected to focus on rhetoric about the social costs of switching away from fossil fuels to combat climate change.

This is despite countries across Europe suffering from fires, droughts and floods of greater ferocity due to climate change. The continent has warmed twice as fast as the global average for the past 30 years.

The advisory board called for crucial elements of the EU’s broad package of climate and industrial policy to be passed into law as soon as possible.

This includes the Critical Raw Materials Act and the Net-Zero Industry Act, both partly as a response to clean technology subsidies in the US, as well as a proposal to amend the decades-old Energy Taxation Directive so as to remove tax exemptions for aviation and shipping. 

“The message is clear: this is a race against the clock and the EU and its member states cannot be short-sighted,” said Elisa Giannelli, who leads on EU politics and governance for the climate-focused think-tank E3G. 

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