Peter Liese & Christian Ehler: Without flexibility, no 2040 target whatsoever / Enabling conditions key to achieve any target

“We think it’s very dangerous to criticise the European Commission because they intend to include flexibility in their proposal on the 2040 target. We don’t see a majority in Parliament nor Council for any 2040 target without flexibility. Even more important is that finally Europe will create the enabling conditions to actually reach any 2040 target, for example, for the ramp up of hydrogen, CCS and cheap electricity,” said Peter Liese, spokesperson of the biggest group in the European Parliament (EPP, Christian Democrats) on climate, and Christian Ehler, spokesperson for the same group on industry, energy and research. While the EPP group didn’t fix their group position, the two MEPs expressed their personal views. 

On Wednesday, the European Commission will present their legislative proposal for the climate target for 2040. The leak has been widely spread over the weekend and says that the target will be 90% as announced but 3% of the ambition can be met with reduction efforts outside the European Union, so called Article 6 credits under the Paris Agreement. Also other flexibilities are included in the draft proposal. 

“I see the challenges that international credits include and of course we need to learn from past mistakes. Fraud has to be avoided and it’s only a partial and time-limited solution because someday all the states in the world need to be climate neutral. On the other hand, high quality third country carbon credits can reduce the costs and there is a purpose that Article 6 is in the Paris Agreement: the mechanism can mobilise additional money for third countries,” declared Liese. 

“The competitiveness of our industries is currently under massive pressure. We will not stand for further climate or environmental policy measures without corresponding initiatives to boost competitiveness. In the current situation, our climate targets will, if at all, be reached via deindustrialization. To counteract this, the Commission must set the right course as a package along the climate target: expansion of energy infrastructure, removal of regulatory barriers, and the completion of the internal market must become priorities,” said Ehler.

Both politicians insisted on the imperative to keep the international process alive: “Trump withdraw from the Paris Agreement but until now nobody followed. Even Argentina under President Javier Milei stayed in the Paris agreement, mainly because of Mercosur, which has the Paris Agreement as a pre-condition. It is important for the European Union to present an ambitious NDC for 2035 to keep the international process running and in particular to motivate China and other countries to pledge ambitious reduction targets themselves.”