COPENHAGEN — Connie Hedegaard remembers when local weather was Europe’s nice unifier.
Greater than a decade in the past, because the EU’s first local weather commissioner, she helped flip carbon coverage right into a pillar of Brussels’ energy and some extent of delight for the bloc. However with southern Europe now burning and Brussels pivoting to a brand new mantra of safety and competitiveness, she worries the tide is popping — with dire ramifications.
“When folks lose their properties or their households to excessive climate, they don’t simply endure loss, in addition they lose belief in decision-makers,” Hedegaard instructed POLITICO on the sidelines of an natural farming summit. “That distrust is what feeds polarization.”
And she or he didn’t mince phrases in regards to the trade giants and different actors she says are chargeable for stalling progress.
“I keep in mind when BP referred to as itself ‘Past Petroleum,’” she stated, citing the large British oil agency. “Now they’re backtracking. They need to be ashamed of themselves.”
The warning by the Danish nationwide, who led the European Fee’s newly established local weather wing between 2010 and 2014, comes greater than a yr after far-right events surged within the European election, capitalizing on voter anger over inflation and inexperienced guidelines.
Eight months into Ursula von der Leyen’s second time period atop the Fee, her bold Inexperienced Deal local weather and environmental agenda has develop into a political punching bag, with nationwide governments pushing for looser targets and trade lobbying to sluggish the tempo of change.
However Hedegaard argued that treating the Inexperienced Deal as a burden in robust occasions is a harmful miscalculation.
“For Europe, local weather and safety are interlinked. I believe most individuals can see it once they take a look at our power dependency and the necessity for transformation of our power techniques,” she stated.
“If policymakers fail to behave, they threat fueling the very populism they declare to concern.”
Local weather actuality
From final yr’s “monster” floods in Spain to this summer time’s fires in Cyprus and southern France, local weather disasters have battered Europe with elevated scale and frequency.
In Scandinavia, July’s record-breaking warmth left hospitals overwhelmed and even drove reindeer into cities in quest of shade. The European Surroundings Company estimates such disasters have already price the continent practically half a trillion euros over the previous 4 many years.
Hedegaard is not any stranger to political battles. A former Danish minister and longtime center-right politician, she lower her tooth in Copenhagen earlier than shifting to Brussels in 2010. Remembered in EU corridors for her direct and conversational type, honed by an early profession as a journalist, Hedegaard is blunt in her assessments.
Her pointed assault on BP, as an example, comes after the corporate scaled again its renewable power investments whereas elevating annual spending on oil and fuel — reversing the local weather pledges the agency as soon as trumpeted.
BP didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Hedegaard’s remarks additionally come as local weather lawsuits mount all over the world. Final month, the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice dominated that governments will be held legally chargeable for failing to behave on local weather change, a choice that might additionally embolden challenges towards firms.
Since leaving Brussels, Hedegaard has taken on a number of roles in local weather coverage and sustainability, together with chairing the European Local weather Basis. However her post-EU profession has not been with out controversy.
In 2016, she joined Volkswagen’s new Sustainability Council, a transfer critics stated risked greenwashing within the wake of the carmaker’s emission-cheating Dieselgate scandal. She defended the position as unpaid and aimed toward pushing the corporate to scrub up its act.
For von der Leyen, Hedegaard has an unvarnished message: Don’t blink. “She has stood agency thus far. She should proceed to do this,” she stated of the EU government president.
Hedegaard additionally warned that Europe can’t afford to stall whereas China pours billions into climate-friendly expertise. “If Europe hesitates whereas others go full velocity, we threat shedding the industries of the long run,” she stated. A local weather pact with Beijing final month was hailed as a diplomatic win, however underscored how cooperation is more and more entangled with rivalry over who will dominate the availability chain.
Nearer to house, Hedegaard pointed to farming as one of many EU’s most instant levers. She argued that the Widespread Agricultural Coverage, which consumes round a 3rd of the EU price range, could possibly be used extra forcefully to drive the inexperienced transition whereas chopping purple tape for the smallest farmers. “It takes braveness,” she stated, “however agriculture is among the sectors the place we even have the instruments to behave.”
“This isn’t the time to hesitate or foot-drag,” she added. “It’s time to ship.”