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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello,

Today’s newsletter focuses on the result of the European Parliament elections and its significance for environmental policies.

A more rightward-leaning European Parliament will make it harder to pass ambitious EU climate policies, but the majority of Europe’s current world-leading green policies are likely to stay put, lawmakers, officials and analysts said.

Provisional election results on Sunday night showed centrist parties holding a majority, but gains for right-wing and far-right parties skeptical of the EU’s “Green Deal” package of environmental policies, and heavy losses for Green parties.

“I don’t think that we’ll be rolling back on (climate) policies. But I do think that it will be more complicated to get new policies off the ground,” Bas Eickhout, head of the European Parliament’s Greens lawmaker group, told Reuters.

Also on my radar today:

Peter Kofod reacts during the election party at the Danish People’s Party headquarters in Ejstrupholm, Denmark. Ritzau Scanpix/Mikkel Berg Pedersen via REUTERS 

EU climate measures over the next five years will depend on the incoming European Commission, which is responsible for proposing EU laws. But the newly-elected European Parliament will get a say on every new green policy.

Sunday’s election result signals a tougher path to approve new EU climate measures.

“All new policies will be harder to pass. But backsliding is very unlikely,” Krzysztof Bolesta, Poland’s secretary of state for climate, told Reuters.

“It is possible that new ambition will be delayed, mostly for populistic reasons,” agreed Julian Popov, who until April was EU member Bulgaria’s environment minister.

Citizens across the European Union voted in the European Parliament elections to choose direct representatives for the supranational legislative body.

The European Parliament is one of the EU’s three main political institutions, along with the European Council, which represents national governments of the 27 member states, and the European Commission, the bloc’s Brussels-based executive arm.

Only the European Commission can formally propose new laws, either on its own initiative or after requests by other EU institutions or citizens.

Laws are passed through an agreement between the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, composed of national government ministers of a particular policy area.

The EU spent the last five years passing a bumper package of clean energy and CO2-cutting laws to hit its 2030 targets, and those policies will be hard to undo.

But a more climate-skeptical EU Parliament could attempt to add loopholes to weaken those laws, since many are due to be reviewed in the next few years – including the bloc’s 2035 phase-out of the sale of new combustion engine cars, which faced criticism during the EU election campaign, including from lawmakers in von der Leyen’s center-right political group.

The European Parliament will also negotiate with EU countries a new, legally binding target to cut emissions by 2040. 

That goal will set the course for a future wave of policies to curb emissions in the 2030s in every sector, from farming, to manufacturing, to transport.

The EU Commission has suggested the 2040 goal should be an ambitious 90% emissions cut, but it needs approval from both EU countries and the Parliament.

While new climate measures might face a tougher ride, a full-scale reversal of the dozens of EU climate policies passed in the last five years would be legally difficult.

A firefighter rescues a bird, following a fire in which exotic animals, reptiles and pets perished at Chatuchak Weekend Market, in Bangkok, Thailand. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa


Mike Childs, head of policy at Friends of the Earth, shares his thoughts about the UK’s Liberal Democrats who are the first of the major parties in this year’s general election to publish their manifesto:

“The Liberal Democrats have traditionally been the greenest of the three main political parties and their manifesto will be a tough act for the Labour Party and Conservatives to follow. 

“They have rightly put fairness at the heart of their green plans by promising free insulation and heat pumps for low-income households, cheaper electricity and water bills through a new social tariff to help those struggling most, and an Environmental Rights Act to protect us all, but particularly the most marginalized communities, from pollution.

“What’s more, the party has pledged to meet the UK’s international obligation to cut carbon emissions by more than two-thirds by 2030, while also committing to a more ambitious national goal of delivering a zero carbon economy by 2045 – sooner than the existing 2050 target. 

“And it has made ending the impunity with which polluting companies can operate one of its mainstays, by promising to make businesses responsible for environmental harms such as the sewage scandal, and devastating impacts caused overseas, to clean up their act.

“At first glance, the party’s manifesto appears to be an impressive document recognising the interconnection of the climate and nature crises with existing societal inequalities, and attempts to match both with solutions that speak to the level of ambition required. 

“We look forward to studying its manifesto – and those of all the main parties – in more depth, which we’ll be scoring against our key demands for protecting climate and nature.”

Breakingviews: A sense that the United States’ southern border is porous and uncontrolled is a significant political liability for President Joe Biden ahead of the November election. Polls show immigration and border security among the top priorities for voters, and Biden’s handling of the issue is judged harshly. 

But sustained immigration is also the U.S. economy’s primary advantage over many of its competitors, especially as long-term demographic challenges begin to pinch developed country labor markets. Short-term enforcement measures needn’t change that. Click here for the full comment piece by Breakingviews’ Gabriel Rubin.

Mexican fashion designer Camilo Morales cuts electoral trash that he uses to produce bags and clothes in his studio in Mexico City, Mexico. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini

In keeping with today’s election theme, Mexican fashion designer Camilo Morales has upcycled vinyl political advertisements for candidates in Mexico’s local, state and federal elections, which took place on Sunday.

Morales recycles everything from plastic shopping sacks to fabric scraps, turning them into bags, clothing and accessories.

Among the winners was Claudia Sheinbaum, the former Mexico City mayor who will be the nation’s first woman president.

For the last year, Morales has been pulling down the ubiquitous banners, taking scissors to them and sewing them into tote bags, which he sells for between 100 pesos ($5.44) and 600 pesos ($32.63).

Morales’ cheapest bags, sold under his label Rere, use the all-white background of most ads. The most expensive one is a collage of the heavily shadowed eyes of Clara Brugada, the ruling party candidate set to be the next mayor of Mexico City.

Today’s Sustainable Switch was edited by Alexandra Hudson.

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