19
Oct
2021
Watch
Climate, Energy and Environmental State aid guidelines (“CEEAG”) (debate)
(without microphone) to stop the climate crisis, the Paris Agreement. The climate issue has gone from being almost obscure to becoming a central part of EU policy through the Green Deal. Most recently, we received a climate law that significantly raises the EU's climate ambitions. At the same time, many policy areas have not kept up with these developments. State aid is one such important area where the rules have not been updated in accordance with the climate. The rules on when State aid can be authorised for environmental and climate purposes have not been updated for seven years. It is therefore to be welcomed that the European Commission is now taking a step in this direction. It would also be welcome if we here in the European Parliament can now agree on a common understanding of the direction in which we should go to improve the climate benefit here. There is no denying that we have high energy prices at the moment. Only a fifth of that is because we have a sharper climate policy that prices dirty fuels. The rest is actually linked to our dependence on fossil fuels, such as natural gas. When the price of Russian gas rises, it infects the cost of heating our homes all the way up in Sweden. It is now time to invest in the future, in the clean and cheap green technology. State aid is an important tool that can support this development, but may as well slow it down if the investments instead are fossil. I hope that Parliament can land in a strong position for the climate, and stand up for renewables – against fossils.