EU climate chief gets green light for new Commission

Interim climate and tax commissioner Wopke Hoekstra is on his way to serving a full term in president Ursula von der Leyen’s incoming second EU executive after convincing MEPs in a European Parliament hearing.

Hoekstra was appointed last year following the departure of compatriot and EU green deal director Frans Timmermans.

Following a three-hour hearing before the European Parliament’s environment, industry and economy committees, he was backed by the centre-right EPP, the Socialists & Democrats, liberal Renew, Greens and right-wing ECR groups.

The 90% target for emissions reduction

Having already committed to proposing a 90% target for net greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2040, compared to the EU’s 1990 baseline, Hoekstra was pushed more than once to specify when it would be tabled.

“Let's make sure that the communication within the first hundred days on the Clean Industrial Deal and the 90% go hand in hand,” Hoekstra said.

But for the actual legislative proposal to amend the EU climate law, which already sets a target of 55% by the end of the present decade and net-zero by 2050, he said: "We probably need a bit more time for that."

ICE car phase out

Like incoming transport commission Dan Jørgensen in his hearing earlier in the week, Hoekstra committed to sticking with the incremental reduction of the CO2 emissions limit for new cars to zero by 2035 – a de facto ban on petrol and diesel models.

“I don't think we can now revisit the commitments we made, this parliament made, on how we advance with the car industry,” he said, having spoken of the need for legal certainty and committing to support the necessary upgrades to the power grid and charging infrastructure.

Despite a recent lobbying drive in Brussels, with carmakers warning that impossible CO2 limits for next year would see then facing ruinous fines, Hoekstra questioned whether the industry really needed, or even wanted, the targets changed.

“Actually, many car companies have asked us…to stick to the 2035 targets, but frankly speaking, also to the 2025 target,” he said. “We had exactly the same situation in 2020, 2021,” he said, speaking of the last time the limit was tightened, when all but one firm managed to comply.

Tax

Hoekstra’s new role will see his portfolio expanded to include tax, which took up about a third of the hearing. A Hungarian member of Viktor Orbán’s Patriots for Europe group extracted a reassurance that the Dutch former finance minister was not determined to push for qualified majority voting on tax matters, an area where all member states can wield a veto in the EU Council.

On taxing aviation fuel and air travel, which enjoys a free ride compared to alternatives like road and rail transport, he said he was open to convening a “coalition of the willing” to look into the matter. “This is the domain of member states, so they would need to agree,” Hoekstra said, adding: “I can pull them, I cannot push them."

COP29

“We account for only 6% of global emissions and yet we will have to make sure that the other 94% are being tackled as well,” said Hoekstra, who'll be leading the EU negotiating team at the COP29 climate summit opening in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku next week.

“So therefore, we need to be more assertive about our expectations towards the rest of the world…And it is only fair to ask more from China, the US and other large emitters,” he said, adding India to the list in later statements.

War in Ukraine and Gaza, rising geopolitical tensions and the re-election this week of Donald Trump, who has promised to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement a second time, have provoked fears of a loss of momentum in the global effort to halt climate change.

“The geopolitical situation is, of course, grim – and that will have an impact on Cop 29 and on our climate diplomacy," Hoekstra said without elaborating. "But this cannot be an excuse for inaction."

‘Listen to the scientists’

Lawmaker Anja Arndt used her allotted time as environment policy coordinator for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) to argue that air is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and only 0.04% CO2, and that the EU pursuing net-zero emissions would have no effect.

“We have no alternative than to listen and talk to the best scientists in the world,” Hoekstra told the German lawmaker to applause. “And with all due respect, that would also be my invitation to you.”

“The brutal reality is that Europe is heating up twice as quickly…as the world average,” Hoekstra added.

The verdict

Climate campaigners were generally reassured by Hoekstra’s commitment to stick to EU climate targets, with some reservations.

“While we welcomed Hoekstra's dedication, we hoped for a stronger commitment to holding Member States accountable for delivering on ambitious National Climate and Energy Plans in line with the Paris Agreement,” said Sven Harmeling of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe.

CAN Europe was among a group of NGOs that today lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission, demanding action against member states whose national climate and energy plans they claim are not in line with EU targets. Thirteen out of 27 member states have yet to submit their final draft despite a legal deadline that passed at the end of June.