Speeches

Mr President! Ladies and gentlemen. Now is the time to make a choice that could be fatal to our climate goals: Indeed, we have the last chance to stop the Commission’s hopeless decision to include natural gas – a fossil fuel – in our green investment taxonomy. A decision that is pure greenwashing of natural gas. Honestly, this is an opportunity we must not waste! Otherwise, we risk binding ourselves to fossil energy long after we should have phased it out. Now keep in mind that the taxonomy does not determine either what to invest in or what energy countries need. Instead, it must set a gold standard for what is a green investment, and it must show private capital what you can invest in if you want to help our climate goals along the way. This must be done right, because we need huge investments if we as a society are to succeed in the green transition. And if we actually want to achieve our absolutely necessary climate goals. This is all too important for black investments to be called green. So I hope you will vote yes to our protest tomorrow.

Mr President! These days will probably be some of the most important of my time as a Member of the European Parliament. Right now, we're really moving on to climate legislation. We are usually a house that pushes ambitions upwards, and I really hope that we will continue to be when we have voted on the many important pieces of legislation this week. Fortunately, we have reached a strong and green agreement on burden sharing that sets binding climate targets for all countries. I am particularly proud that we have secured faster action towards 2030. Every year counts for the climate, and we can't just wait until 2030 and hope that everyone reaches their goal. With the agreement we will vote on tomorrow, we will be able to save the atmosphere by 2030, which corresponds to Italy's CO2 emissions in a whole year. This is actually a victory in itself. Another victory is that right now we are making it clear that all countries must be carbon neutral by 2050. We are changing our society fundamentally. From being fossil and polluting to becoming modern green emerging economies. But we must not end up dividing the European Union into the countries that have to reduce and the countries that do not have to do so much. We cannot afford this in the climate crisis. And then we must also ensure that all countries join the green transformation of our society, so that they get a part of the future growth, which will undoubtedly be green. So we must not overlook this when we talk about a just transition. Thank you for helping to pave the way for climate action. I look forward to voting for the climate and for the future this week.

Mr. President! We have something very special together in the EU: Our single market. This is probably our greatest success at all. It is the very foundation of our Union that lifted us in many ways, and it has given us a common voice and clout on the global stage. How did we create the success? Among other things, there are strong competition rules. Rules that ensure that we trade with each other on equal and fair terms. Our market is built on trust between countries. If we do not trust companies to compete on market terms, then we also run the risk that countries will start to fight for their own and perhaps even close down more about themselves. And then there is the dynamism that makes us dare to trade freely across the EU in the first place. Our competition rules state that we can only grant state aid to companies in exceptional circumstances. For example, during the Pandamian lockdowns – there we did it on a large scale and there it was necessary for us to preserve jobs and businesses in an extraordinarily difficult situation. But now that the lockdowns are over and most restrictions are also gone, it is of course also time to return to a more normal world where it is not state aid but healthy competition that ensures development and growth. And if you don't love healthy competition for the sake of the single market, then you should love it for the sake of the green transition. We are facing a huge transformation of our societies and there is simply not enough public money in the world to get us where we need to be. The Commission itself says that we need €650 billion a year – in addition to what we already spend – so we cannot possibly just rely on state aid. We need private capital. We need private companies and healthy competition between them to ensure transformation and innovation.

Madam President! Thank you for taking the floor, and thank you to the 270 researchers behind this report. It is not news that we are busy in the fight against climate change. The shocking thing about the UN's sixth climate report is how many people are already being affected by climate change. Millions of people are being displaced by extreme weather, about half of the world's population is experiencing water shortages, species are dying out, and this is all happening right now, and it is also happening around us. So, ladies and gentlemen, we are in the middle of the negotiations on the EU's climate policy. Negotiations that already have too unambitious a starting point. But let's remember this report. We need to stop choosing semi-green solutions that may look good right now and are easiest and help in the short term, but which will actually delay the end goal and the right solutions. This is a mistake that we must not make. We can still do a lot for the climate and for future generations. But we must not try to solve our problems in a way that ends up creating new climate problems in the future.

Madam President! We will never forget the last two years. They've been bizarre, and they're going to be expensive, too. We are in the midst of Russia's terrible war in Ukraine, we have had a severe pandemic with deaths and lockdowns and also long periods of economic downturn. Crises cost money and bills have to be paid. Many of these bills will be paid by our children. The next generation will be the ones who will pay off our corona debt, and at the same time they will have to pay for climate change, for the necessary green transition, for our security and also for growing older generations. So we have to take responsibility now if they are to have a chance. It is also now that we need to modernise the European economy and create the reforms that tighten up outdated economic systems instead of pushing the problems ahead of us. We must stand together to make the EU the economic superpower that we should be - also in the future.

Mr President! It was almost six years ago that the countries of the world made an important climate agreement. They met in Paris. They'll be back in Glasgow soon. I would really like to remind you of something, because how much can you really forget in six years? It was, for example, the agreement that we should put a global price on CO2. We haven't done that yet. It was also the agreement that we should give $100 billion a year to the green transition of developing countries. We're only up to 80. It was also the agreement that we should stick to a temperature increase of one and a half degrees. Once upon a time, even in the European Union, we are complying with this with our climate targets. If the world's leaders have had memory loss since 2015, then research teams have regularly reminded them that we need to do something now. And I hope that, in particular, the most polluting countries in the G20 are ready to take important steps in Glasgow. For example, it would suit them to set a date by which all fossil energy – including natural gas – must be completely out of the picture. We can't stand here again in six years and ask why we didn't do anything when we had the chance.

Madam President! It has become more expensive to have the lights on in this room and to have the microphone on. And when it can be felt on people's bills, it creates turmoil in European politics. Because what should we do to prevent a lack of energy sending the prices of skyrocketing? I understand that the Commission is considering a solution where we need to buy more natural gas and store it. But rising energy prices must not be an argument for more fossil energy. Nor should it make our political colleagues shake hands in the transition to renewable energy. On the contrary, the growing bills should be an important reminder that we need to invest even more in more wind turbines, solar cells and much more infrastructure for electricity. One of our biggest climate tasks until 2030 is to get everything we can into electricity. Therefore, it is today and not tomorrow that we need to expand the production of renewable energy so that we do not run out and have to go back to expensive natural gas. It is also the only way we make sure that the price of green energy becomes more and more competitive and Europeans avoid the big extra bills.

Mr President! A few days ago, I spoke to a man from the shipping industry. He had to buy new ships. But he had doubts: What technology should he bet on? Is there enough green fuel? When will he pay for the ship's pollution, and what will it actually cost? He was insecure and I can understand it. A lot of European companies are in exactly the same position right now. There are many unknowns in climate policy as it is right now. We will change that when we succeed in landing an ambitious climate package. I know we can, but I am genuinely afraid that political hesitation and all sorts of national considerations will drag things along. But time, it's not a luxury we have. If we do not hurry, we risk slowing down the transition in the companies that are ready. We risk missing out on the green investments that we could have received, and worst of all, we risk not solving the climate challenge in time. So let's get started!