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Energy, Environment & Transport Pro Brief |
| Tue 21 January 2025 |
Estimated reading time: 4-5 minutes |
| Good morning and welcome to Tuesday 21 January’s daily Energy, Environment, and Transport Pro Brief.
It has not been a good week for the environment, and it’s still only Tuesday.
Last night Trump immediately took an axe to Biden’s energy and climate policies. Not much has survived.
And in Europe the EPP’s Green Deal dismantling may be less dramatic, but it is quietly continuing.
Over the weekend centre-right leaders including von der Leyen and Merz agreeing to kill a planned 2040 renewables target.
Here are our top stories for the day:
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| | Trump takes an axe to Biden’s energy, climate policies |
| Returning US President Donald Trump released a flurry of executive orders within hours of taking office last night, and energy and environment files were top targets.
From more LNG in Alaska, to ‘putting people over fish’, the orders were a bloodbath for US climate and environmental protection.
As expected, Trump ordered a US exit from the Paris Agreement. When the withdrawal is complete in one year, the US will join Yemen, Iran and Libya as the only non-signatories to the deal.
Various orders are designed to fast-track fossil fuel extraction, and offshore wind leasing is ‘temporarily’ paused - until Trump decides that it can continue again.
There will also be a review of wind permitting processes, which nobody thinks is going to make it easier to deploy wind farms.
Agencies were told to immediately stop paying out any cash under Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act, including for EV charging networks.
One order calls for an end to the “EV mandate”. There should be no limits on the sale of petrol-fueled cars, and the administration wants EV subsidies removed too.
Even carbon pricing gets a mention.
One order says that that “the calculation of the ‘social cost of carbon’ is marked by logical deficiencies, a poor basis in empirical science, politicization, and the absence of a foundation in legislation.”
Within 60 days no federal government permitting or regulatory decision should factor in carbon’s wider cost to society. [DC]
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| EPP leaders want to freeze CO2 duty, abolish renewable targets |
| Last weekend, the EPP's leaders descended on Berlin for a leadership summit.
In their joint paper, the group, which includes Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, likely next German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Greek Prime Minister Kyrios Mitsotakis, proposes a return to pre-2019 ‘green wave’ policies.
This means putting on hold for at least two years the EU corporate sustainability reporting rules, which require companies to track, report, and eliminate issues like child labour in their supply chains, the EU's green finance taxonomy, and the new CO2 import tariff. [NK]
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| | Francophone companies split on sustainability reporting rule changes |
| The French Association of Large Companies (AFEP) has called for major changes to EU sustainability reporting rules, but the proposal has sparked differing opinions within its own ranks.
In a letter sent to the European Commission last week and seen by Euractiv, AFEP demanded a “new architecture” for the EU rules on sustainable finance, including the voluntary status of the EU’s green taxonomy.
The letter also asks for the postponement and renegotiation of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), which requires companies to assess human rights and environmental impacts.
But some of AFEP's member companies disagree.
For example, "making the taxonomy voluntary would result in an excessive rollback when plenty of companies already adjusted to it," one AFEP member told Euractiv. The company fears its investments will be undermined if green rules are not upheld.
Swiss food giant Nestlé, part of the French group, is also weighing into the debate. In a separate letter last week, it urged EU commissioners not to "allow renegotiation of agreed texts” and to “limit any changes to those that reduce redundant or overlapping reporting requirements.”
As the debate continues, initial indications are that the AFEP may get its way.
French Commission EVP Stéphane Séjourné today told French media that the complete deletion of the directive's reporting requirements may be on the table. [BM]
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| | Illegal German waste dumping in Czech village lands at EU’s door |
| Masses of fibreglass debris from wind turbine blades and aircraft parts were illegally transported from Germany to a small Czech municipality, prompting investigations and calls for a European solution, as it was not an isolated case.
The first waste lorries arrived in Jiříkov, a village in north-eastern Czechia, before Christmas. Others followed in January.
The shipment, from the German company ROTH International, labelled as plastic waste, was destined for the Czech company Piroplastik, which had claimed to be processing plastic materials.
On inspection, however, it turned out to be fibreglass - almost impossible to recycle - raising suspicions of illegal dumping.
“The waste demonstrably comes from Germany,” Czech Environment Ministry spokeswoman Veronika Krejčí told Euractiv.
Aneta Zachová has the full story, about which questions are now being asked in the European Parliament.
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| | Left-wing MEPs demand new gas price cap |
| A coalition of left-wing MEPs is calling on the European Commission to extend the EU's gas price cap, which expires on 1 February, as Europe's winter gas stores are draining fast.
At the peak of the energy crisis in 2022, the EU adopted a temporary price cap on gas prices set at €180 per MWh.
But with gas stores likely to be depleted by the end of the heating season and growing pressure to secure supply for next winter, MEPs warn that without action, "Europe may remain at the mercy of speculators."
In a letter to European Commissioners, including President Ursula von der Leyen, 34 left-wing and three ECR EU lawmakers – mostly from southern Europe – are making the case that the price cap should be renewed.
Initiated by Italian MEP Dario Tamburrano (The Left), signatories of the letter include influential S&D lawmaker Nicolás González Casares from Spain and the Greens' Michael Bloss from Germany.
The MEPs argue that the current cap of €180 per MWh may be "too high" and urge the Commission to propose a lower limit. Rome previously floated a cap of around €50 to €60 per MWh. [NK]
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| | Fearing Trump tariffs, German carmakers burnish their US links |
| | Polish PiS candidate promises EU Green Deal referendum |
| Karol Nawrocki, the presidential candidate backed by the PiS (ECR) party, has promised to hold a national referendum on the European Green Deal if he wins the election on 18 May.
Food and energy security “are existential, very important, fundamental issues”, said Nawrocki, adding that all Poles should be able express their opinion in a referendum on the Green Deal, which “aims to deprive Polish agriculture of the possibility of functioning.”
Given that countries cannot chose to unilaterally opt out of parts of EU law, any referendum would likely have limited practical impact, even if Poles voted in favour.
According to the latest IBRiS poll, Rafał Trzaskowski, who represents Prime Minister Donald Tusk's cetre-right Civic Coalition is on 35%, ahead of Nawrocki on 28.9%. [Aleksandra Krzysztoszek]
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| | | | | Today’s brief was brought to you by Euractiv’s Energy, Environment & Transport team |
| | | | Today’s briefing was prepared by the Energy, Environment and Transport team: Donagh Cagney, Nikolaus J.Kurmayer, Bárbara Machado, and Jasper Steinlein. Share your feedback or information with us at digital@euractiv.com. |
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