The conservative right is gaining momentum in Spain, France, Germany, Poland or Italy – a trend that could be amplified by climate change, which “will make us look more inward and thus adopt very conservative reflexes,” says François Gemenne.
François Gemenne is a political scientist and researcher who specialises in the geopolitics of the environment. He is the Scientific Director of the Fondation Nature et Homme, Director of the Observatoire Hugo, and co-author of the 6th UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.
From 2 to 6 June, 100 climate-orientated innovations were presented by over 200 stakeholders at the Arch event.
The event took place on a cruise ship that went from Saint-Nazaire, France, to Amsterdam – a trip many, including Gemenne, viewed as ecologically unsound but nevertheless brushed off with the researcher admitting to being “completely imperfect”.
“I’m wary of these demands for people working on these issues to set an example. I make a difference between research and activism,” he told EURACTIV France.
His comments are somewhat timely, as French President Emmanuel Macron called for a “regulatory pause” on EU environmental legislation last month on 11 May.
Gemenne came to the defence of Macron, saying he “wanted to say that existing laws should first be applied before creating new ones.” He admitted, however, that speaking of a “pause” was a “mistake when it comes communication” that firmly anchored the term in the EU debate.
Macron’s words were particularly welcomed by leaders who are keen to slow down EU climate law-making. This is the case, for instance, for Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo, who now supports the idea of a “break” for certain agricultural legislation with the aim, according to Gemenne, of “luring the agricultural lobbies”.
Green Deal: EU’s Timmermans rules out ‘break’ in the green transition
European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, said on Friday (2 June) he was opposed to any “break” in the green transition, in a thinly-veiled critique of Emmanuel Macron’s call for a “European regulatory break” on environmental constraints.
However, the opportunism of politicians does not come as much of a surprise to the researcher and political scientist.
In his view, “public authorities are more timid than companies” when it comes to environmental issues.
For instance, while the German government managed to get an exception into the EU-wide combustion engine ban for 2023, “electric cars are already everywhere in European dealers’ showrooms, and combustion-powered cars will have disappeared well before 2035”, he predicts.
“This does not mean that no regulation is needed. It simply has to be stable over time and fair for each sector,” he adds.
Green investments needed in emerging countries
To accelerate decarbonisation, the EU needs to “facilitate investment” alongside regulation, with investments needing to be at least partly directed towards emerging countries outside the EU.
“Europe’s future climate is also being decided in Cairo, Mexico or Lagos,” where greenhouse gas emissions, while still relatively low, “could explode in the next few years”, he explained.
“It’s not a question of telling emerging countries what to do, but of investing in them in their own interests” without impinging on their sovereignty, he said.
Speaking of sovereignty and climate action, Gemenne said, “Climate physics nips the principle of sovereignty in the bud: we are linked to each other and simultaneously responsible”.
Rethinking the status quo
Instead, it would be more useful to develop a “cosmopolitical project”, the researcher added.
Such a project would “potentially require us to rethink a whole series of concepts on which our societies are based today”, such as some of our individual freedoms and even our indicators of good economic health, he also said.
However, setting up such a project is now impossible, the researcher said, arguing that public authorities should concentrate on making low-carbon products more attractive for consumers than polluting ones.
“We need to move forward on pragmatic elements,” while “the more obvious presence of the danger of climate change will make us look more inward and thus adopt very conservative reflexes”, he added.
Indeed, the conservative right is gradually establishing itself in the European political landscape, whether in Spain, France, Germany, Poland or Italy, while the left is still unclear on whether it will unite – a trend that worries the researcher ahead of the 2024 EU elections.
In France, left-wing parties banded together with the Greens ahead of the legislative elections in June 2022, earning the alliance a few more MPs in the National Assembly, and there is now talk of a similar alliance for the EU elections in 2024.
But according to Gemenne, the French Green party Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, has yet to clarify its position. While one branche led by MP Sandrine Rousseau prioritises social questions or feminism, the other led by MEP Yannick Jadot – whom Gemenne advised for the presidential elections of 2022 – focuses on environmental issues.
According to Gemenne, these two branches are now “absolutely irreconcilable”.
French left must unite ahead of EU elections, says Mélenchon
France’s recently created left-wing alliance NUPES won’t last if a single left-wing list is not presented at the European elections next year, according to far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, although opinions differ widely across the alliance.
Formed in June of last year, NUPES …
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald and Frédéric Simon]
Source: euractiv.com
