Converting ambitious climate goals into concrete actions has met with resistance in several European countries.
Laws aimed at protecting the climate and the environment are facing a headwind in several European countries, reports the Reuters news agency. At the same time, the antics of climate activists are being tackled with an increasingly heavy hand.
The European Union is still ahead of the rest of the world both in its climate goals and in turning them into concrete legislation. Recently, however, several European countries have seen the rise of parties opposed to climate action and fierce political arguments over emission reductions that have already been decided.
Actions aimed at emission reductions are facing headwinds in Italy, Great Britain, Holland, Poland and Germany as well.
The German government almost fell when it tried to promote the phase-out of oil and gas heating. Member of Parliament of the Social Democratic Party of Germany by Nina Scheer according to now it is especially important to take care that the green transition is carried out fairly, and that green legislation does not leave anyone in trouble.
– Otherwise, citizens may begin to feel that climate legislation is always economically unsustainable and bad, and populists will be able to use that feeling to their advantage, he tells Reuters.
In the Netherlands, the farmers’ protest party against limiting nitrogen fertilizers was the biggest gainer in the election. Poland, on the other hand, has sued the EU for climate measures.
– Does the EU want to make authoritarian decisions about what kind of vehicles Poles drive? asked the Polish Minister of the Environment Anna Moskva last month.
Control of activists has been tightened
At the same time, laws restricting the activities of climate activists have been passed in several European countries, Reuters reports.
In recent years, environmental activists have become known for spectacular actions across Europe: in Germany, protests have interrupted oil shipments. In Berlin, activists stopped traffic and glued their hands to the street. Climate activists and the police have violently clashed during demonstrations in Räska.
And who could forget the Just Stop Oil group’s rampage, where two activists threw a can at Heinz tomato soup Vincent Van Gogh sunflower painting in the National Gallery, London.
For example, the German and French authorities have responded by tightening controls on climate activists. Activist groups have been monitored using methods usually used against organized crime, Reuters reports based on interviews with prosecutors and police.
In May, Britain banned gluing oneself to real estate and even preparing for gluing.
In July, France introduced new laws allowing for tighter surveillance of activists and expanding the right to arrest activists.
Anti-climaticism will rise in the upcoming European elections
The experts interviewed by Reuters warn that in the next few years populist anti-climate speech may become more prominent in the elections, both locally and at the EU level. Green reforms have increasingly started to be blamed for increasing the cost of everyday life.
– Next year’s European elections will be significant in terms of the future, because the centre-right has a more negative attitude towards green legislation than before, comments an expert from think tank ECFR Mats Engström.
According to EU officials interviewed by Reuters, it is more difficult to pass green legislation than before. Some of the governments of the EU countries are against the emission limits for cars, others want to get rid of the control of farm emissions. The regulation on the energy efficiency of buildings is also considered too expensive by several member states.
Director of the Italian think tank Istituto Affari Internazionali Nathalie Tocci according to the EU’s nature protection measures are even worse because of the lobbying of powerful interest groups in agriculture.
– Circumstances have definitely changed since 2019, when we had full support and the political will to act across the entire party field, commented the EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius for Reuters.
In the European Parliament, the green transition as a whole still has a stable majority behind it, says Sinkevičius, but the current political debate is already having a clear effect on individual legal projects.