In a new report entitled “Hall of Shame,” the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has warned that the European Union’s own policies are at odds with the EU’s climate goals. The report was issued ahead of this week’s climate action self-assessment by the European Union and lists several anti-climate EU policies, including the lack of any tax on aviation fuel, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and permission given to industries to pollute under the Emissions Trading System (ETS).
Every five years, the European Union is required to conduct a self-assessment on whether its policies are consistent with promoting climate neutrality, yet many existing EU policies are actively contributing to climate change, the WWF report warned.
“The European Commission needs to take action as soon as possible to fix these policies, which are a stain on EU climate leadership,” said Michael Sicaud-Clyet, Climate and Energy Policy Officer for the WWF.
Of particular concern is the EU’s refusal to amend its “sustainable” finance taxonomy, the official list of economic activities that are classified as “sustainable” investments, which still includes nuclear power plants and natural gas-fired power plants. Currently, the European Commission is a defendant in five different lawsuits at the European Court of Justice for the inclusion of gas-fired and nuclear power plants under the taxonomy.
The EU’s continuing failure to impose any taxes on the use of aviation fuel is another major area of concern, according to the WWF report. Currently, the EU prohibits taxing aviation fuel except for commercial domestic flights.
“The absence of a tax on aviation fuel is the biggest absurdity of them all,” said Wopke Hoekstra, the EU Commissioner for Climate Action. “When I take my car to the petrol station, over half the price that I pay is taxes. But when a jet is refueled, there is no tax paid whatsoever. How could any European think that that makes sense?” said Hoekstra during his confirmation hearings last October.
A house divided
The WWF report clearly shows the dichotomy between the European Union’s mandate to take action on the climate and its failure to harmonize its own policies in order to achieve that goal.
According to the WWF, the top areas of contention include:
- The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which provides subsidies and other incentives for the farming and consumption of animal products.
- The inability to come to a consensus on the need to tax aviation fuel, and how to use that income, if aviation fuel were taxed.
- Classifying nuclear power plants and natural gas-fired power plants as “sustainable” investments.
- Freely allowing industry to continue to pollute under the Emissions Trading System (ETS), which has failed to reduce emissions from heavy industry and is hindering the development of more sustainable production methods. Heavy industry currently produces more than 50% of polluting emissions in the EU.
- A lack of clarity concerning the efficacy of the Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR) policy which attempts to “offset” fossil fuel emissions by removing land from use.
- The lack of a ban on subsidies for fossil fuels, including for new exploration and drilling/extraction operations.
In addition to the above, the WWF has warned that several other EU policies are having an indirect effect on hindering climate change action, including:
- A lack of capacity in the EU’s electrical grids, which need further effort to become more sustainable and flexible. The EU’s electrical grids also need to be modernized to become more efficient with better interconnection between member states.
- The lack of jurisdiction over both international aviation and marine emissions by planes and ships that are owned by non-EU companies that are operating in EU territory.
- The lack of targets or very low targets for reducing energy demand across the EU, called “demand-side measures” for reducing emissions.
- The inability to reach a consensus on reforming the Energy Taxation Directive, which means that electricity may be subject to higher taxes than fossil fuels in some cases.
- The EU’s 2030 RePowerEU target for renewable hydrogen use is considered “too ambitious” and may lead to unsustainable demands on the electrical grid in order to produce hydrogen.
In the EU’s defense
Although the EU has yet to publish its mandatory self-assessment on combating climate change, it must be noted that harmonizing its tens of thousands of policies with its goal of climate neutrality will not be an easy task.
Concerning the tax on aviation fuel, for instance, imposing one in cross-state flights would require a full consensus from all 27 EU member countries, including the island nations of Cyprus and Malta, which have a tourism industry heavily reliant on these flights. Further adding to the difficulty of imposing a tax on aviation fuel is that approximately 60% of flights in the EU connect internationally with a non-EU nation, meaning that new agreements would need to be negotiated with those countries. Attempts to come to a consensus on the issue by the International Civil Aviation Organization have been ongoing for years.
Similarly, while it is true that heavy industry emissions continue to be allowed under the EU’s ETS policies, it has to be noted that the level of these emissions has remained virtually unchanged over the past decade, so it is not clear exactly how much there is to be gained by reducing the level of permissible emissions, especially considering that many of the EU’s most industrialized nations are already suffering from a severe economic downturn.
Likewise, making adjustments to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) would require a dramatic shift in political risk-taking amongst EU members. As one of its oldest and most well-entrenched policies, the CAP already absorbs a third of the EU’s budget, and attempts to limit the production of animal and dairy products has already led to large-scale protests by farmers in the Netherlands and the collapse of the Dutch government, partly due to disagreements on climate change measures.
While it is certainly understandable that the WWF and other organizations which are focused exclusively on climate change and protecting natural resources are calling on the EU to better harmonize its policies with its own goals on climate neutrality, making large-scale and sweeping changes will require a steadfast and long-term political commitment by each and every member state, something that has, so far, failed to happen. Currently, not a single member of the EU is on track toward achieving the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goal 13 on climate change.
