New EU Commission structure shows seriousness on climate action

Ursula von der Leyen, seen here as Germany’s defence minister on Feb. 13, 2019. Photo by NATO/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

A week before the United Nations Climate Summit began, a new leader took the helm of the European Commission with the goal of promoting strong climate action.

“I want the European Green Deal to become Europe’s hallmark,” EU Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen said on Sept. 10.

One of her first acts in office was to appoint her second-in-command with overseeing Europe’s goal of achieving climate neutrality by mid-century.

“At the heart of it is our commitment to becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent,” she said at the time.

Dutch social democrat Frans Timmermans was nominated Sept. 10 to present the “European Green Deal” over the first 100 days of the new EU Commission’s mandate, which begins Nov. 1, while also serving as climate-action commissioner.

Frans Timmermans

✔@TimmermansEU

“We are one people, one race – the human race – living on one planet. Let’s be bold and let it be known that #globalism is in fact enlightened patriotism” #UNGA74 #SDGs #EU

5:12 PM – Sep 24, 2019

That includes boosting the continent’s emissions-reduction targets from the current 40 per cent to as much as 55 per cent by 2030, and proposing a climate law to enshrine a goal of climate neutrality by 2050.

Officials have said that might be difficult, but some say the new role Timmermans is about to take may help facilitate this change.

Leyen has changed the structure of the EU Commission in constructive ways, former EU Commissioner László Andor told National Observer in a Sept. 21 interview at the United for Climate Justice conference organized by the Foundation of European Progressive Studies (FEPS) on the fringe of the United Nations General Assembly.

The new structure involves three executive vice-presidents, one of whom is Timmermans, who will be in charge of “everything about sustainability.”

Previously, these responsibilities were “scattered, and not necessarily well co-ordinated,” Andor said.

For example, before Timmermans’ appointment, the EU Commission had a climate-and-energy commissioner, which was a problem because “very often, energy wins and climate is subordinated,” Andor said.

“Now, the point is that climate policy is going to be concentrated at a very high level,” he added. “And this will be more effective than the previous arrangement. To start, I’m sure there will be continued pressure.”

Former EU Commissioner László Andors makes opening remarks at the United for Climate Justice conference in New York on Sept. 21, 2019. Photo Supplied

Bodies like the European Investment Bank have been able to cohesively shift the focus of investment into renewable energy and sustainable services in line with ambitious goals, while also developing partnerships with the private sector and other government. That is now what the EU Commission is trying to do under Leyen, Andor said, making the changes worth watching.

“If the European Union wants to remain relevant in the eyes of this part of the electorate, it has to be serious. And this is a method of credibility for international partnerships and actions at the global level,” said Andor, who is FEPS secretary general.

Andor believes Timmermans’ very focused role will allow the EU Commission to build international partnerships and dialogue with civil societies and other actors in the fields of social and climate innovation. MORE

 

David Suzuki decries pipeline approval, calls for unity on ‘existential crisis’ of climate change

‘If the Raptors could get all of Canada united, then what the hell?’ says Suzuki

Environmentalist David Suzuki joins Green Party Leader Elizabeth May during a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday, June 14, 2019. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Environmentalist David Suzuki says Canadians have little time to reach greenhouse gas emissions targets recommended by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last October.

The report detailed that annual carbon dioxide pollution levels, which are still rising now, would have to drop by about half by 2030 and then be near zero by 2050.

“We’ve got very little time to make a major shift in our energy use … basically reduce our emissions by 50 per cent. That’s a big ask,” Suzuki said.

Speaking with Cross Country Checkup on Sunday, Suzuki, host of CBC-TV’s The Nature of Things, criticized the federal government for re-approving an expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the plan on Tuesday.

That announcement came just a day after the House of Commons passed a non-binding motion declaring that Canada is in the midst of a “national climate emergency.”

Suzuki spoke with Checkup host Duncan McCue on Sunday about the politics of climate change and he took calls from listeners.

Here’s part of that conversation.

What was your reaction when the Canadian government re-approved the Trans Mountain pipeline?

I didn’t know what the hell is going on. I mean, we have our Parliament now declaring a climate emergency, which is right on, and at the same time, approving pipelines.

So long as we’re down there discussing pipelines — and the threats to the southern resident whales, the possibility of spills, carbon taxes being too big — we’re not going to do what has to be done.

Your caller Geoffrey said it right at the beginning: read the IPCC report that came out in October of last year. And that said, we’ve got very little time to make a major shift in our energy use … basically reduce our emissions by 50 per cent.

That’s a big ask.

Environmentalist David Suzuki says Canadians have little time to reach greenhouse gas emissions targets recommended by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last October.

The report detailed that annual carbon dioxide pollution levels, which are still rising now, would have to drop by about half by 2030 and then be near zero by 2050.

“We’ve got very little time to make a major shift in our energy use … basically reduce our emissions by 50 per cent. That’s a big ask,” Suzuki said.

Speaking with Cross Country Checkup on Sunday, Suzuki, host of CBC-TV’s The Nature of Things, criticized the federal government for re-approving an expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the plan on Tuesday.

That announcement came just a day after the House of Commons passed a non-binding motion declaring that Canada is in the midst of a “national climate emergency.”

Suzuki spoke with Checkup host Duncan McCue on Sunday about the politics of climate change and he took calls from listeners.

Here’s part of that conversation.

What was your reaction when the Canadian government re-approved the Trans Mountain pipeline?

I didn’t know what the hell is going on. I mean, we have our Parliament now declaring a climate emergency, which is right on, and at the same time, approving pipelines.

So long as we’re down there discussing pipelines — and the threats to the southern resident whales, the possibility of spills, carbon taxes being too big — we’re not going to do what has to be done.

Your caller Geoffrey said it right at the beginning: read the IPCC report that came out in October of last year. And that said, we’ve got very little time to make a major shift in our energy use … basically reduce our emissions by 50 per cent.

That’s a big ask.

Steel pipe to be used in the oil pipeline construction of the Canadian government’s Trans Mountain Expansion Project lies at a stockpile site in Kamloops, B.C., on June 18, 2019. (Dennis Owen/Reuters)

Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says there’s no inconsistency: we can expand Trans Mountain and meet Paris emissions targets. What do you make of that?

As long as we’re in the political arena, then we’re not going to be serious about dealing with the IPCC challenge.

The problem, you see, is that the issue now, the timeframes are so long.

Even [former prime minister Stephen] Harper, who was someone that didn’t want to even talk about climate, was forced ultimately to set a target — but he set it way the hell away. He knew he wouldn’t be around when the time came to say, ‘Have we met these targets?’

The Liberals accepted the Harper targets and … we’ve never met any of the targets we’ve declared that we’re committed to and we punt. We put off the decisions.

Well, time has run out. We don’t have time to wade through the next election and then have an argument to the next election after that. We’ve got to start now and we’ve got to make the commitment.

This is no longer a partisan issue. If the Raptors could get all of Canada united, then what the hell? Why can’t we all be united on an existential crisis now? This is no longer a political issue.

I agree with Jason Kenney. He needs a war room, but he’s got his guns aimed the wrong way. MORE

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David Suzuki: Climate change and biodiversity should be top headline news

Fighting for Climate Credibility

Now is the time to encourage political leaders to move beyond recognition of our climate emergency and commit to reducing emissions to at least 1.5 degree C as quickly as possible

Canada’s political parties are competing for climate credibility

With five months to go before the next federal election, Canada’s political parties are competing for climate credibility, seemingly engaged in a battle to show they care more about the environment, reports The National Observer.

This is a climate activist’s dream. Not only will climate be the top issue in the October election, but having politicians compete for climate action supremacy is dizzying. I frankly did not see this coming.

Climate Credibility

Image credit: Bernd Hildebrandt, Pixabay

Liberals are poised to declare a climate emergency

The Liberals have filed a motion which asks Members of Parliament “to recommit to the Paris climate-change accord by meeting the existing targets for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions and toughening them as is required to meet the accord’s stated objective of keeping global warming as close to 1.5 C as possible,” writes Mia Rabson of The National Observer.

The Liberal motion …brings Canada closer to a declaration of climate emergency following the U.K., Ireland and Switzerland. This is precisely the kind of climate leadership activists and environmentalists have been calling for since the Liberals came to power in 2015.

We may not always agree on which solutions are best, but surely we can agree on the problem — that climate change is an emergency like none we have ever faced before. The science is clear. Climate change is impacting our environment, our nature, our health, and our economy. pic.twitter.com/SaKYPjV02P

— Catherine McKenna 🇨🇦 (@cathmckenna) May 16, 2019

NDP goes much further than Paris targets

The NDP motion (full text found below) also seeks to reach the Paris targets but goes much further by calling for the cancellation of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and an end to fossil-fuel subsidies. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says “pipelines and fossil-fuel subsidies are not congruent with climate-change action.” However, he will not go so far as to oppose the LNG project in his NDP-led home province of British Columbia.

Greens would double the emission-reduction targets

Meanwhile, the Green Party is calling for a 60% cut in greenhouse gases based on 2005 levels, in effect doubling Canada’s 30% reduction promised in the Paris Accord. Elizabeth May is very emphatic that Canadians need to heed the warnings of the IPCC 1.5°C report and Canada’s own Canada’s Changing Climate report that shows we are warming twice faster than the global average.

Somewhere below two degrees is the tipping point to where we run into something (that) scientists call runaway global warming—a self-accelerating irreversible global warming that could lead to temperatures that call into question the survival of this biosphere.

In order to ensure that action follows rhetoric, the Greens would create a non-partisan ‘war cabinet’ modeled after Winston Churchill’s during WWII to tackle the existential threat of climate change.

Click here for the transcript of a recent E. May interview on The Current, CBC Radio. “And an increase of two degrees would be catastrophic,” says May. MORE

Dutch to close Amsterdam coal-fired power plant four years early -RTL

Is the sun setting on coal-fired power stations in the Netherlands? ( iStock )

AMSTERDAM, March 7 (Reuters) – The Dutch government will close one of the five coal-fired power plants in the Netherlands next year, four years earlier than originally planned, to help reach its climate goals, Dutch broadcaster RTL reported on Thursday.

The decision follows a 2018 court order instructing the government to ensure greenhouse gas emissions are reduced from 1990 levels by at least 25 percent by the end of 2020.

Researchers in January said the government was likely to miss that goal as carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the Netherlands are expected to be only 21 percent lower next year than in 1990.

Current plans call for the two oldest coal-fired plants in the country to be shut in 2024 and for the other three to stop running by 2030. MORE

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Dutch parliament votes to close down coal-fired power stations

We need a ‘grown up discussion’ about getting off fossil fuels, U.K. climate watchdog tells Canada

Activists hold a ‘keep it in the ground’ banner on the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. Photo by Eamon Ryan / 350.org.

Chris Stark, the chief executive of the U.K. Committee on Climate Change, speaks at the British High Commission on Feb. 25, 2019. Photo by Andrew Meade

Fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground and be priced differently in the markets, if the world is to meet the challenge of the Paris climate agreement, says the head of Britain’s climate watchdog.

Chris Stark, the chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change, which advises the government of the United Kingdom on reducing emissions and adapting to global warming, told National Observer that while fossil fuels will still have to be used for decades, “that has to be accompanied by a strategy to take us off them in the future.”

“Politicians have to be grown-up about it too,” @ChiefExecCCC told @OttawaCarl . “Being grown up is about taking big decisions at the right moment, being supported of course by the economics and the evidence.”

“Put bluntly, if we are to meet the emissions targets that are implied by the Paris agreement, then we know already that we have too many fossil fuel reserves out there,” Stark said Monday in an interview at the British High Commission in Ottawa.

If we don’t meet those targets, he said it indicates a problem since there hasn’t been sufficient investments that would allow us to adapt to a changing climate. He also said that the current market needs to assess all the risks and impacts of fossil fuels and incorporate these factors into the price that we pay for these energy sources.

“The idea of disclosing those risks more explicitly to the market is going to be a really important driver of getting the investment patterns right in the future,” he said. MORE