The European Green Party is set for an internal battle over climate targets at a party congress this weekend (2-4 February), with the German Greens pushing to postpone the climate neutrality goals by five years and scrap parts of the gas and oil phase-out policies.
The European Green Party’s (EGP) draft manifesto, first reported on by Euractiv, calls on the EU to bring forward by ten years its target date for climate neutrality, from 2050 to 2040.
The German Greens have other plans, though, as they are now trying to push the manifesto’s target back to 2045, according to proposed amendments seen by Euractiv.
The manifesto will be discussed at the conference in Lyon and the final version adopted on Sunday (4 February).
The Germans are also pushing to remove calls to end the use of fossil gas by 2035 and of oil by 2040, keeping only the draft’s target of phasing out coal by 2030, as well as a call to prohibit financial services “for coal, oil and gas extraction, coal-fired energy projects, and the companies that develop them”.
The 2045 climate neutrality goal is already part of the Germany’s governing coalition agreement between the Greens, centre-left SPD and liberal FDP
The German Greens are thus looking to align the European Greens’ climate goal with the official line of the German coalition government.
“Intense” negotiations ahead
The German proposals are likely to cause controversy among the European peers as some influential Green parties heavily support the ambitious original targets.
Ecolo, the Belgian-Wallonian Green party that is part of the Belgian ruling coalition, came out in defence of the climate targets in the draft manifesto.
“It’s excellent that [the target of 100% renewable energy] has been set in the manifesto. Given Europe’s historic responsibility and its resources, we should get there as quickly as possible, for example by 2040,” Jean-Marc Nollet, the party’s co-president, told Euractiv.
The Austrian Greens have also long been advocating for climate neutrality by 2040 and managed to make this target the official position of the Austrian ruling coalition, of which they are a part.
“[The] details of how and when” the Greens will want the EU to achieve climate neutrality and exit fossil fuels thus remain completely open for the moment, a spokesperson of the Austrian Greens told Euractiv.
Justine Pantelejeva, co-chair of the Latvian Green party, told Euractiv that “[intense] but necessary discussions (…) on the goals and objectives of more ambitious climate goals for Europe” are expected at the party congress.
The German Greens, who hold 21 of the 71 seats in the Green group within the European Parliament, seem ready to make at least some concessions.
A German Green party spokesperson told Euractiv the party is open for “exchange and constructive negotiations” on the matter.
To govern or not to govern
The disagreement reveals that the national Green parties remain split on how moderate or radical their targets should be.
The German Greens have been looking to moderate their messaging, as the party is aiming to strengthen its social and economic profile and reconcile more business-friendly rhetoric with the Greens’ traditional stand on climate change.
This perspective has clashed prominently with France’s Les Ecologistes, amongst others, who are the second-largest member of the EGP.
Most recently, German Green leader Omid Nouripour dismissed as “nonsense” French calls for stricter driving licence regulations after political opponents in Germany framed them as a way to introduce an eco-friendly speed limit through the backdoor.
German Greens turn against French comrades in driving licence debate
The German Green party has strongly distanced itself from a proposal on driving licences made by French Green EU lawmaker Karima Delli after politicians from Germany’s ruling and opposition parties strongly criticised the proposals.
German party members trace the shift in tone back to their more specific role as part of Germany’s coalition government.
Asked about ideological differences between national Green parties, German Greens lead candidate Terry Reintke told Euractiv in an interview last November that “the German Greens are in a coalition government right now and there are things that you cannot do as fast as you would like to”.
The German Greens’ reputation and poll ratings still have not recovered from last year’s controversy surrounding their flagship project of reducing the emissions of heating systems. From 21 seats in the 2019 EU elections, they are forecast to shrink to 14 in the next EU elections in June, according to Euractiv’s latest projections.
The legislation had been framed as forced installation of renewable-energy-based heating systems in all buildings, prompting a months-long dispute with the Greens’ coalition partners.
[Additional reporting by Oliver Noyan]
(Edited by Oliver Noyan/Nathalie Weatherald/Zoran Radosavljevic]
Read more with Euractiv
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Source: euractiv.com
