What kind of future do we want?
Dear friends,
The coronavirus debate is now very much focused on how to get our economies back on track, as governments ease up on the lockdown measures of recent months.
Corporate lobbyists have been very active since the beginning of the turmoil. In our latest edition of the “Carbon Countdown” podcast, Danny Magill from InfluenceMap and our Sam Van den plas talk about the current corporate climate lobbying activities and their implications. In particular, we have seen campaigns spearheaded by business associations which effectively use the health crisis as a pretext to weaken existing or future climate legislation.
The European Green Deal is a promise of a more sustainable and resilient future. This is not the time to backtrack on that promise but to use it as a guiding principle for our recovery. We were particularly encouraged to see Jytte Guteland, the lead EU Parliament lawmaker on the EU Climate Law, support the science-based target of 65% emission cuts by 2030. She shows that even in these uncertain times, we cannot allow our climate commitment to be derailed. In a similar spirit, in an annual survey by the financial market data analyst Refinitiv, carbon market stakeholders expressed their confidence in the EU Green Deal leading to stronger EU climate laws, despite the corona factor.
While our focus must be on the need to cut pollution and fast, other efforts will, unfortunately, be required on top. To limit global heating to 1.5 degrees – and because humanity is not getting on with reducing emissions fast enough -, some emissions will have to be removed from the atmosphere and permanently stored. This concept called “negative emissions” may very well play a role in the revised EU climate laws in the coming years. This is why, with partners around Europe, we are about to launch a project with the aim to ensure well-regulated and responsible deployment of negative emissions technologies and practices.
- Publication: Annual Report 2019
- Publication: Never Wasting a Crisis: Industry Climate Lobbying During the COVID-19 Pandemic Exposed
- Podcast: Corporate climate lobbying in the times of corona
- Article: Lead EU lawmaker’s strong call for climate action
- Article: The EU to improve its carbon market rules despite corona – survey
- Article: What “negative emissions”?
- Publication: Carbon market stakeholder letter to ICAO Council
