EU climate chief: Europe must ‘fill the vacuum’ after US exits climate talks

The EU’s most senior climate policy official said it was “truly unfortunate” that the mercurial US president began his second term with an executive order to exit the global climate action process launched 10 years ago in the French capital. Euronews caught up with him today on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“It's not completely unexpected, of course, but it is unfortunate because we're talking about the largest economy across the globe, the most influential power we have and the second country in terms of its emissions,” Hoekstra said. “So that has consequences.”

Among those consequences is the fact that other leading world powers will now have to work out who will take the lead in the run-up to the crucial COP30 summit in Brazil, where countries are expected to set out how they plan to up their game on emissions reduction.

Hoekstra stressed the EU would continue to engage with “our American friends” in the domain of climate action, as well as on pressing issues of geopolitics and trade. At the same time, Europe must be more assertive in its diplomacy across the world, he said.

“When there is a vacuum, others will fill it – and that holds goods for us,” the Dutch politician said. “But I'm sure the Chinese, the Indians and others will play their part as well.”

The signs are that a considerable effort will be needed before COP30. With the deadline expiring next month, only six countries have so far submitted updated climate action pledges required under the Paris Agreement. One of them was a parting shot from Joe Biden in the last days of his presidency.

“I can only commend his administration for doing that,” Hoekstra said. The EU is set to miss the deadline, with the EU executive yet to table a keenly awaited proposal for a 2040 emissions reduction. “What is of pivotal importance is that we walk into Brazil with the right level of ambition,” Hoekstra said.

Before that, the Commission is due to present in the coming weeks a strategy to cut Europe’s dependence on imports of Russian fossil fuels once and for all by 2027. But with the US already the EU’s main supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG), and Trump looking to boost exports, there are concerns that Europe might remain dependent on fossil fuel imports, just from another source.

Hoekstra said the EU would “double down” on renewable energy deployment and power grid infrastructure. “We're going to be very, very clear on making sure we enhance our autonomy and decrease our dependencies,” he said.

Any solution to the global climate crisis will also require close engagement with the world largest greenhouse gas emitter, China, Hoekstra said, noting that no solution was possible “if they don’t play ball”.

“So we will continue to engage with them,” Hoekstra said. “And we will also continue to ask more from them rather than less.”