Reporter Wang Lin "China Energy News" (2024-06-17 Edition 05)
On June 9, voting for the 10th European Parliament election ended. Statistics show that the center-right European People's Party, which is the current president of the European Commission, von der Leyen, retains its position as the largest party, and the other two "winners" are the French far-right party "National Alliance" and the far-right European conservative and reform group of Italian Prime Minister Meloni. The "reshuffle" of the European Parliament has basically determined the "rightward turn" of the EU's political ecology, which will have a far-reaching impact on the EU's core policies such as climate change and energy transition.
■ Climate and energy policies will be weakened
According to the British newspaper The Guardian, in the European Parliament elections, the Greens/European Freedom Alliance party won only 53 seats, ranking sixth out of the seven groups in the European Parliament, and in Germany, the "core stronghold" of the Green Party, support has fallen to 12%, far lower than the 20.5% in the last election.
European public opinion generally believes that in the past five years, the EU has passed a package of laws on clean energy and carbon dioxide emissions, and after the birth of the new European Parliament, far-right parties that are skeptical of the green transition may weaken the influence of these policies.
In fact, far-right parties in Europe have been relatively negative about the green transition and climate action, accusing the European Green Deal of causing industrial decline in Europe and placing a heavy burden on manufacturing and industrial enterprises.
It is worth noting that the climate issue was once a consensus among various political forces in Europe, but in recent years, due to the superposition of multiple factors such as the epidemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, European voters' attitudes towards climate issues have become quite different. On the one hand, the geopolitical conflict has triggered a widespread energy crisis, the surge in oil and gas prices has led to an increase in inflation in the European region, and the economic growth in the euro area has been slow, causing great concern among the public. On the other hand, compared with other countries and regions in the world, the EU's climate and green transition policies and regulations are more aggressive, and in the context of the poor economic environment, industry, manufacturing, and agriculture are widely affected, which causes discontent.
Reuters pointed out that in recent years, the cost of living of European people has risen significantly, and the enthusiasm for green energy transition has been extinguished, and even resistance.
The EU's energy, climate change and other policy bills need to be voted on by the European Parliament, which also participates in approving the EU's annual budget. The Associated Press reported that the European Parliament's "turn to the right" will make it more difficult for the EU to pass legislation.
■Seeking to relax emission standards
The Financial Times recently reported that most countries in the European Union are asking the European Commission to relax some provisions of the European Climate Act.
It is reported that the first meeting of the new European Parliament will be held on July 16, in addition to determining the direction of EU policy setting in the next five years, it will also face an important task, that is, to elect the new president of the European Commission by voting. Now that the European Parliament's "rightward turn" has been decided, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is likely to make concessions on parts of the European Climate Act and the European Green Deal in order to win more votes.
A few days ago, the European Commission weakened the rules on packaging waste, environmental due diligence and other aspects, while allowing EU member states to introduce a set of "simplified procedures" when assessing, allowing companies to conduct their own assessments in certain circumstances. At present, only four EU countries, including Germany and Austria, insist on not allowing the introduction of "simplified procedures".
In addition, the European Commission has also relaxed the criteria for the "carbon neutral" attribute of products, which means that a company can label its products as "carbon neutral" if it offsets its own emissions by participating in carbon offset projects such as carbon sinks or afforestation. The European Commission says carbon offsets can be used as a tool to reduce emissions for highly polluting companies such as airlines and steel companies.
Carbon Market Watch and the European Consumer Rights Alliance say the only way to tackle the unproven "carbon neutrality" claims made by companies on their products is to ban them altogether.
■Italy prohibits the installation of photovoltaics on agricultural land
It is worth noting that Italy has begun to call a halt to the promotion of solar energy. The Italian government has issued an emergency decree banning the installation of solar panels on agricultural land, while prohibiting farmers from leasing land to solar developers. Previously, Italy allowed the installation of solar panels at a height of at least 2.1 meters above the ground on agricultural land.
The emergency decree was strongly opposed by the Italian Ministry of Energy, but was supported by the Italian Minister of Agriculture, Francisco Lolobrigida. Coldiretti, the Italian agribusiness association, also welcomed it.
"The use of solar panels needs to be regulated urgently, and if they are installed in agricultural areas, they must be related to agricultural production." "Italy has very favorable tax rules for agribusiness and agricultural land, but the installation of solar panels changes the intended use of the land, indirectly giving renewable energy developers access to tax incentives for agricultural land," said Francisco Lolobrigida. ”
Italy's far-right European Conservative and Reform caucus has consistently said that Italy's specialty agricultural products are under threat from solar projects and that installing solar panels on agricultural land poses a risk to food security.
However, in Italy, not all land zoned for agriculture is suitable for growing crops, especially where there is no irrigation. For example, in southern Italy, hot weather, drought, and high cultivation costs have left some land fallow for a long time.
Despite the large area of designated farmland in Italy, nearly one-quarter of the land is fallow due to poor soil quality, lack of irrigation, fragmentation of land ownership, labor shortages, and lack of interest from urban landowners to invest in agriculture, according to the Italian Solar Energy Industry Association. Italy needs only 1% fallow land to meet its target of 80 gigawatts of solar power by 2030, but new regulations are hindering solar adoption.
"We have great solar resources, but politics have never been able to reach their potential." Paulo Rocco Viscontini, President of the Italian Solar Energy Industry Association, stressed.
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