July 18th, 2019
Ursula von der Leyen has become the first female EU Commission President after a nail-biting vote on Tuesday where climate ambition played a key role in negotiations with other parties.
Ms
von der Leyen, who previously held the position of Minister for Defence in her
native Germany, won the Presidency by just nine votes.
Make
or break discussions over a more ambitious climate policy for Europe was a key
decider in the vote, with the liberal, socialist and greens bloc pushing for prioritisation
of climate action.
Ms Von der Leyen sits on the more conservative European People’s Party, yet, her political plan for the bloc contains ambitious climate commitments such as a climate-neutral EU by 2050 and the ramping up of 2030 emission reduction targets to 50 per cent.
The incoming President will also propose a European Green Deal within her first 100 days in office which begins in November. This deal will include a European climate law that will create a binding target to make the EU climate neutral by 2050.
She
also proposed a carbon border tax that would be levied on goods and services
from countries which do not put an equivalent price on carbon to that set by
the EU. Research
conducted
has shown that a carbon border tax could increase global welfare and be
compatible with World Trade Organization rules.
Von
der Leyen has also proposed a zero-pollution target and says she will turn
parts of the European Investment Bank into Europe’s Climate Bank. Currently, 25
per cent of EIB finance goes to climate but she will aim to double this figure
by 2025.
Furthermore, the mother of seven wishes to expand the Emissions Trading System, set up a Just Transition Fund and also put €1 trillion into the Sustainable Europe Investment Plan.
The Secretary-General for the European Environmental Bureau, Jeremy Wates said that the pan-European network “welcome the fact” that Von der Leyen has put the environment top of the agenda.
“This
is a crucial time for the natural world. [Von der Leyen] has made some big and welcome
commitments including to a European Green Deal, a carbon border tax and a
zero-pollution future – and we look forward to seeing more details,” he added.
Mr Wates was critical, however, of the
lack of attention in her environmental plans for the EU’s Common Agricultural
Policy (CAP) that he said is “in need of radical reform” due to its damaging
impact on nature.
International conservation group BirdLife
Europe welcomed the new President’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 but also
stressed that the CAP needs to be addressed.
“The CAP is the biggest expenditure of
the EU, and also the biggest killer of EU biodiversity. Von der Leyen cannot
claim to be a champion of the environment while continuing to fund this
disaster,” the group said.
Céline
Charveriat, the executive director of the Institute for European Environmental
Policy, said that the new President is “setting out a holistic and ambitious
sustainability vision for Europe” in contrast to the electoral program of the own
EPP groping.
“To
become transformative, the Green New Deal proposed by Ursula von der Leyen will
need to be supported by a set of science-based quantified targets to 2030, and
include short-term actions and credible roadmaps for the transitions required,”
she added.
By Marianne Foody
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