Environmental Union Archives - WITA

Making Transatlantic Relations Green: A Common Agenda For Climate Action

Rachel Accorsi — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 15:08:24 +0000

Introduction

US President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the November 3rd election has raised hopes for greater transatlantic cooperation. On the campaign trail, the former Vice President vocalised his desire to repair relations with American allies, in particular Europe. His pick for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is an avowed Atlanticist and proponent of multilateral institutions. As part of a more multilateralist agenda, Biden has stressed that combating climate change will be one of his main priorities. He pledged to rejoin the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, has proposed a $2 trillion climate plan to make the US climate neutral by 2050, and appointed former Secretary of State John Kerry as his Special Presidential for Climate to demonstrate his commitment to addressing the crisis.

Despite these encouraging signs, the Biden administration will not be a cure-all for climate, mostly as a result of the domestic challenges that it will face. Although his plan is ambitious compared to previous presidents, Biden’s climate proposals fall well short of the left-leaning “Green New Deal” sponsored by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Edward Markey. Furthermore, Biden will restrict –but not ban– fracking and picked several advisers with ties to fossil fuel industries. Politically, any climate agenda will face headwinds (if not outright obstruction) from a likely Republican-controlled Senate and a right-leaning judiciary. While these limitations pale in comparison to the outright climate-denial of the Trump administration, it is still crucial for advocates of transatlantic climate cooperation to be mindful of them. In light of the ambitions and constraints of the incoming Biden administration, this policy brief suggests key areas where the US and the EU could work together to deliver global climate action in the next two years.

Conclusion

President-elect Biden will not have free rein to implement his climate action program. In addition to judicial barriers, Democrats will most likely not control the US Senate. And with Democrats holding only a slim majority in the House of Representatives, and midterm elections usually swinging against the president’s party, Republicans may retake the House in 2022. With so much uncertainty on the horizon, the next two years are therefore crucial to accomplish climate goals.

After Biden takes office on January 20th, 2021, the EU must act with a sense of urgency. It should engage the new US administration on areas where progress can be entrenched in the next two years: relaunching global climate diplomacy, developing a global green recovery program, accelerating clean energy innovation, cooperating on common standards and phasing out of coal. This will be an uphill battle but Europeans need to make the best of the coming two years, They must hope that new ambitious policies will shift climate economics and politics enough to help change the calculus for elected representatives and firms alike, who may realize that climate-friendliness is the most viable way to re-election and a successful business. This is the surest way to forge a substantive American contribution to global climate action.

To read the full brief, please click here.

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Thomas Pellerin-Carlin is the Director of the Energy Centre at the Jacques Delors Institute in Paris.

Edward Knudsen is a Research Associate for the Dahrendorf Forum and Affiliate Research Fellow at the Jacques Delors Centre in Berlin.

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The Implications of a No-Deal Brexit for the EU

Ann Marie Caton — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 14:47:41 +0000

As the end of the transition period nears, the EU must prepare for a fundamentally different and more conflictual relationship with the UK. Whatever the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, there will be profound economic, political and geopolitical implications for the EU.

While the EU as a whole might be better placed than the UK to absorb the economic shock of a no-deal, the fallout within the EU will be uneven, resulting in winners and losers. The asymmetrical impact and differential capacity and willingness of national governments to mitigate the shock could exacerbate regional disparities and unbalance the EU’s internal level playing field. As the economic realities of Brexit will be felt differently across the Union, it might become more difficult to maintain the same level of EU unity post-no-deal.

The EU-UK relationship can be expected to become more conflictual and competitive, particularly in the absence of common rules under a no-deal. Regardless of whether a deal is reached, the UK government’s willingness to breach international law is likely to have a lasting effect on trust and has brought an element of precariousness into the relationship. This lack of trust and predictability will also affect the EU’s and UK’s ability (and willingness) to amplify the other’s voice in the geopolitical and security sphere, at a time when the UK’s departure is weakening both sides’ respective weight and capabilities.

All these negative repercussions will be intensified should the talks end in an acrimonious divorce. In any case, the potential for a no-deal by accident or design remains high. The only way to secure a deal at this point is for Boris Johnson to make a double U-turn on his red lines and the Internal Market Bill. Nevertheless, even so, the deal would be a thin and precarious one with low levels of trust, while the threat of further treaty breaches would impede the normalisation of the EU-UK relations. The EU, therefore, must anticipate a much more conflictual and difficult relationship, no matter the eventual outcome.

To download the full paper, please click here.

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Jannike Wachowiak is a Junior Policy Analyst in the Europe’s Political Economy Programme at the European Policy Centre.

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America’s New Climate Economy: A comprehensive guide to the economic benefits of climate policy in the United States

Zimar Batista — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 15:34:28 +0000

This working paper draws on the latest economic research to demonstrate how climate policy and investments in low-carbon infrastructure can reboot America’s economy and set it up for long-term success. On the other hand, delaying action on climate will further expose the United States to costly damages from climate impacts, air pollution, and public health crises.

The United States has made substantial progress towards a low-carbon economy over the past several years. Low-carbon technologies have become more efficient and affordable, and U.S. clean energy investment and deployment grew to new heights, creating millions of jobs. Whether this continues will depend on how the government responds to the COVID-19 crisis.

In addition, addressing climate change can allow the United States to secure a share in the booming domestic and global cleantech market by manufacturing and exporting low-carbon technologies. Moreover, it will help revitalize rural communities by diversifying rural economies and providing affordable clean energy.

Inequalities highlighted by the COVID-19 crisis make it clear that the United States must ensure that moving forward climate policies are fair and equitable by supporting fossil fuel workers and communities and ensuring the benefits of climate policies are shared by all.

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To view the original report, please click here

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The Green New Deal for Europe: Blueprint for Europe’s Just Transition

Madelyn Cunningham — Thu, 19 Dec 2019 18:52:16 +0000

Founded in April 2019 by the Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25), the Green New Deal for Europe aims to unite Europe’s citizens, scientists, unions, parties, and policymakers behind a shared vision of environmental justice.

Europe today confronts three overlapping crises.

The first is an economic crisis, with rising levels of poverty, insecurity, and homelessness across the continent. The second is a climate and environmental crisis, with severe consequences for Europe’s front-line communities and even more perilous ones on the horizon. And the third is a crisis of democracy. Across the continent, people are disconnected from the locus of political decision-making not only in Brussels, but also in the communities where they reside.

These crises are products of Europe’s political decisions, and they are closely bound together. The promotion of extractive growth has driven environmental breakdown, and the devotion to budget austerity — over and above the democratic needs expressed in communities across Europe — has constrained our capacity to respond to it.

A radically new approach is necessary to reverse this destructive trend — and to deliver environmental justice in Europe and around the world.

We call this approach the Green New Deal for Europe, and the following report is a comprehensive policy pack- age charting a course through Europe’s just transition.

The Green New Deal for Europe comprises three distinct institutions, summarized in the sections that follow.

The Green Public Works (GPW) is an historic investment programme to kickstart Europe’s just transition.
The Environmental Union (EnU) is a package of legislation to align EU policy with the scientific consensus, enshrining the principles of sustain- ability and solidarity in European law.
And the Environmental Justice Commission (EJC) an independent body to research, monitor, and advise EU policymakers on how to advance the cause of environmental justice.

But it is not enough to propose new policies and wait around for European leaders to heed their wisdom. That is why this Blueprint also sets out the pathways to a Green New Deal for Europe, showing how communities and grassroots organisations can mobilize to make this vision a reality.

Green Public Works

The GPW is the investment programme to deliver Europe’s transformation. It links economic aims with a vision of environmental justice: decarbonising Europe’s economy, reversing biodiversity loss and guaranteeing decent jobs across the continent.

The GPW is financed entirely through green bonds issued by the European Investment Bank (EIB). These instruments allow the EIB to raise significant amounts of money without breaking Europe’s fiscal rules. Backed by the European Central Bank, the bonds are a safe investment for Europe’s ailing savers and pension funds, while directing idle funds to parts of the continent suffering from unemployment, poverty and climate and environmental breakdown.

The governance of the GPW aims to empower communities and facilitate links between them. Investment decisions are devolved to sub-European authorities, where members of the community actively participate in their direction. Meanwhile, a Green Solidarity Network creates structures for horizontal cooperation among Europe’s cities, regions and rural communities — enabling them to share best practices from the green transition, as well as expanding administrative capacities.

The investments of the GPW aim to reorient the European economy away from private wealth accumulation and toward environmental sustainability. Integrated housing, utilities and mobility strategies will ensure massive reductions in energy demand while transforming Europe’s neighbourhoods.

Europe’s 38 million vacant homes will be mobilised to eliminate homelessness and housing insecurity. A massive retrofitting programme will ensure that Europe’s homes are insulated and protected from extreme temperatures — improving community resilience and ending energy poverty. A pan-European Mobility Cohesion Fund will ensure that every European community has access to agile, clean, inexpensive transport options.

But the GPW is more than an investment programme. It is also a promise to reinvigorate democracy by empowering workers and their communities. The GPW will invest in worker-owned cooperatives, which traditionally suffer from a lack of access to private finance, and reorient Europe’s industrial practices for sustainability, democracy and justice.

GPW funding will be allocated to private firms that advance Europe’s economic, social and environmental goals. Firms that reorient manufacturing towards recycling and repair, extend product life-cycles and shorten the working week will be given funding to support the transition. As will firms that put workers on boards and shift a portion of their profits towards a fund that pays workers a dividend and generates additional resources for the just transition.

Firms that excel at meeting the Green New Deal for Europe’s high standards of sustainability, democracy and social justice will be given a Europe Award, tied to further transition funding.

Finally, the GPW will reinvigorate Europe’s rural communities. Overwhelmingly, European subsidies flow to multinational agribusiness, with devastating social and environmental outcomes — both in Europe and abroad. The GPW will redirect these funds in support of regenerative practices across farming, fishing and forestry, ensuring that Europe’s rural communities become the engine of our environmental recovery.

Environmental Union

The EnU delivers on the Green New Deal for Europe’s promise of ‘systems change.’ It offers a robust and comprehensive regulatory package to realign European policy with the scientific consensus on climate and environmental breakdown, and transform Europe into a global leader on the green transition.

The EnU comprises three broad areas, legislating for (i) emergency, (ii) sustainability, and (iii) solidarity.

The EnU begins from the premise that European policymakers remain in denial about the crisis at hand. It therefore calls for a formal declaration of a climate and environmental emergency, using the declaration to set new targets that will force a review of all existing and subsequent European legislation.

The EnU legislates for sustainability by reigning in environmentally destructive practices within Europe and across the supply chains that link European entities to production processes beyond its borders. The EnU will introduce new amendments to Europe’s prudential rules to penalize fossil fuel investments, fast-track the progress of the Technical Working Group on sustainable finance, and strengthen regulatory oversight of multinational banks operating in the Global South.

As part of its ‘Legislating for Sustainability’ package, the EnU also calls for a radical overhaul of EU energy policy. It discards the regulatory framework of the ‘internal energy market’ to allow for the democratic ownership and control of energy infrastructure. It phases out all fossil fuel subsidies, both direct and indirect. And it adopts a new fee-and-dividend system, ensuring that all emissions sectors are appropriately taxed, with the proceeds flowing to everyday Europeans.

Third, the EnU legislates for solidarity. For decades, the EU has promoted deregulation and resource extraction under the auspices of ‘competitiveness.’ The EnU replaces the principle of competition with that of solidarity, putting the interests of workers, communities, and the environment first.

Legislating for solidarity requires a radical shift in Europe’s agricultural policy, which currently subsidizes industrial farms to flood global markets. The EnU, instead, adopts an EU Common Food Policy, a framework that realigns the various sectoral policies affecting food systems, puts an end to conflicting policy objectives and their hidden costs, and puts agricultural trade in the service of sustainable development.

International trade is central to the ‘Legislating for Solidarity’ agenda. The EnU aims to rewire Europe’s trade relationships to support, rather than undermine, solidarity. This includes terminating Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanisms, integrating sustainability standard into WTO frameworks, facilitating technology transfers, and supporting a global green transition in the process.

The principle of solidarity applies equally to Europe’s development policies, which often fund fossil fuel projects under the banner of international aid. The EnU Green Development Regulation recalibrates the EU’s international development priorities and boosts its commitment to multilateral funding mechanisms like the Green Climate Fund.

Finally, the EnU enshrines respect for the natural world in law, introducing penalties for polluters and formally recognising ‘ecocide’ as a punishable offence. The introduction of these new rules by the EU could serve as a model for the global recognition of ecocide as a crime against humanity.

Environmental Justice Commission

The Environmental Justice Commission (EJC) is the first international body tasked with ensuring that the green transition is also a just one.

The structure of the EJC aims to ensure legitimacy, democracy, and authority. It includes (i) Chairpersons elected by each EU member state, (ii) a Commission with diverse representation from inside and outside Europe, (iii) a Sub-Commission that executes the research priorities of the Commission, and (iv) People’s Panels that put public participation at the core of the EJC’s activities.

The EJC has a broad mandate to set a new international standard for research and reporting on environmental injustices, but is limited to an advisory role, assisting institutions like the European Commission and the United Nations.

It is tasked with gathering data on the consequences of climate change, developing new indicators to evaluate them, monitoring the implementation of Europe’s climate agenda, and advising the EU and other international institutions on future policy development.

The work of the EJC is structured along three dimensions of environmental justice: (i) International justice, (ii) Inter- sectional justice, and (iii) Intergenerational justice.

The crisis of climate change is global, but its impact is not evenly distributed. Poorer countries today are paying the highest price, while bearing the least responsibility. The International Justice wing of the EJC aims to assess the relationship between EU policy and uneven environmental destruction, to monitor the extent to which EU entities perpetuate this legacy of international injustice, and to provide a platform for front-line communities to participate in the development of new regulatory frameworks.

The EJC will develop and apply its metrics of international justice across several key areas. These include migration, where the EJC will develop the first comprehensive database on environmental migration and advise EU authorities on formal recognition of climate refugees and their rights to asylum.

And they include transnational corporations, where the EJC will also help advise EU institutions on the viability of the UN Treaty on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights, and whether similar legislation can be introduced at the European level.

Climate change is deepening inequality not only between countries, but within them. As the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) notes, “people who are socially, economically, culturally, politically, institutionally, or otherwise marginalised are especially vulnerable to climate change and also to some adaptation and miti- gation responses.” The EJC’s Intersectional Justice wing aims to redress these inequalities.

The work on Intersectional Justice also applies across several different areas, including Health, Employment, Education, and Mobility. In each, the EJC aims to identify barriers to equal distribution, recognition, and participation, and advise EU authorities on how best to eliminate them, ensuring that all those who live in Europe are included in the green transition.

The consequences of environmental changes are durable, creating inequalities that can last for generations. The EJC will address these intergenerational consequences in both directions, confronting the colonial crimes of the past and paving the way for future generations to enjoy a healthy planet. As UN General Assembly President María Espinosa has said, “Climate justice is intergenerational justice.”

The EJC will explore mechanisms of accountability for Europe’s historic role in resource extraction in the Global South. In particular, the EJC expanding the EU’s existing set of tools for compensating countries for past wrongs, including through reparations that distribute funds and resources to front-line communities affected by centuries of colonial rule and the legacies of extraction and exploitation it left behind.

Finally, the EJC will examine how Europe can do justice to future generations that will inherit this planet. In particular, the EJC will evaluate Europe’s economic and environmental policies and their potential impacts on future generations. The EJC will consider an explicit legal protection for future generations, which entitles them to make claims on existing environmental policy. And it will propose changes to the discount rate that is used to inform investment decisions, adjusting down to zero discrimination against future generations.

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To view the full report, click here.

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