Hunting season on green legislation seems to have been declared open around the world as momentum has well and truly shifted away from fighting climate change at its source.
Five years ago and green was very much the new black. Fighting climate change or at least saying you were going to fight climate change was in vogue, as politicians everywhere cashed in on public support for going green.
But then came the backlash. The Covid pandemic made life tough for billions around the world, a state of affairs that was only compounded by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its dramatic effect on supply chains and inflation.
It is understandable that curbing emissions and decarbonising society now ranks lower than cost of living and keeping the lights on. Frustratingly short sighted, but understandable nonetheless.
This shift from how should we tackle climate change almost to ‘should’ we fight climate change has been all-too perceptible in political discourse over the last couple of years. Not just in Trump’s America either but here in Europe too.
French lawmakers voted down a rule amendment that would have put a moratorium on all new wind and solar projects just this week. Renewable energy was spared the guillotine this time but the mere fact it was even up for a vote is extremely concerning.
A majority of politicians were able to defeat the rightwing-helmed bill but defeat might just galvanise anti-green forces, which see political capital to be made out of blaming climate policies for our difficult cost of living challenges.
Across the Channel in the United Kingdom, sky-high energy prices continue to be pinned on renewable energy as well, despite the fact that the price of electricity is set by fossil gas, not wind or solar.
That has not stopped Brexit-architect Nigel Farage from promising impoverished communities that he will reopen coal mines and start pumping non-existent North Sea oil and gas if giving access to the levers of power.
In Brussels, the creeping spectre of the anti-climate wave is also very much being felt. At first, it was just the usual barmy calls to suspend the EU’s hugely successful emissions trading system or to stop spending so much on wind power.
But now the erstwhile niche legislation that underpins the bloc’s world-leading shift towards a fully clean and profitable economy is slowly but surely being unpicked piece by piece.
Last year, conservative lawmakers came for the EU’s nature restoration law, a piece of legislation that aims to preserve and restore vital habitats, making life more pleasant for human populations and the biodiversity we share the continent with.
That was not important to the European Peoples’ Party though, which engineered a existential crisis for farmers in order to win votes. They managed to dilute the law and were emboldened to try it again.
They have subsequently succeeded. The EU’s 2025 car emissions targets have been extended by two years, all in the name of industrial competitiveness, and there are still rumours that the 2035 engine ban will either be overturned or diluted as well.
Potentially game-changing legislation in the form of the corporate sustainability due diligence directive and the corporate sustainability reporting directive have both been ‘simplified’ as they were allegedly too burdensome for Europe’s business leaders.
And this week, the Green Claims Directive, a set of rules that would obligate companies to actually back up their climate credentials with actual proof, also triggered a mini political crisis that might have far reaching ramifications by the end of the year.
Conservative forces have seen that bashing efforts to limit climate change’s impact is a vote winner. Even though unpicking the legislation that has taken years and tonnes of political capital to put in place is indirect arson.
Next up is the 2040 climate target plan, due to be published on 2 July. Hopes are not exactly high that this will be a moment for this deregulation wave to change direction.
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