Join us for our live Climate Now debate from Brussels, streaming on our YouTube channel on 24 September at 11:30 CET. Our experts will explore how climate science is shaping EU policy, reflecting on past decisions and future strategies.
As the planet experiences rapid and perilous global warming, climate science is becoming increasingly integrated into EU policy. Data on climate change is influencing decision-making in Brussels and European lawmakers are responding by enshrining climate policies in legislation.
Euronews is hosting a live panel debate which will be live-streamed at 11.30am CET on 24 September on the Euronews YouTube channel.
If you have a question for our panellists, please let us know using this Google Form:
The debate will ask how the facts about our planet are integrated into EU policy, looking at past decisions and future plans.
Hosted by Euronews science correspondent Jeremy Wilks, the one-hour live event features MEP Delara Burkhardt, ECMWF Director General Florence Rabier, European Commission policy expert Vicky Pollard and MEP Michal Wiezik.
EU green policies make climate neutrality key goal for 2050
In December 2019, the European Council presented the European Green Deal.
EU leaders agreed that the bloc should achieve climate neutrality by 2050. This means having a net-zero emissions balance – only emitting as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as can be absorbed by nature through forests, oceans and soil.
In December 2020, EU leaders pledged to more than halve (compared to 1990 levels) the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 as an intermediate step towards the 2050 goal.
In July 2021, the European climate law – a key element of the European Green Deal – was passed. EU countries are now legally obliged to reach both the 2030 and 2050 climate targets.
This legislation requires EU countries to significantly slash greenhouse gas emissions and establish ways of compensating for unavoidable emissions.
Fit for 55: How countries will reach ambitious EU climate goals
In order for the EU to reach climate neutrality, leaders have developed the ‘Fit for 55’ package. This is a set of proposals to revise existing legislation and put in place new initiatives as part of the union’s strategy for turning climate goals into EU law.
The name Fit for 55 refers to the EU’s target of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 per cent by 2030.
Measures include increasing the uptake of greener fuels in transport sectors, toughening CO2 emissions standards for cars and vans, revising energy taxation, boosting renewable energy and making buildings greener.
The power of lobbying during EU policy making
After EU member states signed the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007, lobbying at the European Union level has increasingly become a part of the political decision-making and legislative process.
In 2022, when the European Parliament was voting on legislative proposals to achieve its 2030 climate goals, it received “a tsunami of lobbying”, according to Pascal Canfin, chairman of the Parliament’s environment committee.
MEPs received pushback from sectors including car manufacturers – who held 32 meetings with lawmakers over proposed CO2 regulations for cars – and chemical industries.
In an op-ed published in French newspaper Le Monde, Canfin called out German carmaker BMW and trade association Eurofer for their attempts to “torpedo” the Fit for 55 package.
There were also 52 meetings recorded with groups opposed to EU proposals to end free CO2 pollution credits for some industries.
The EU’s Emissions Trading System covers emissions from the electricity and heat generation, industrial manufacturing and aviation sectors – which account for roughly 40 per cent of total GHG emissions in the EU.
The cap and trade scheme requires companies to buy one credit for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit.
However, to protect Europe’s industries against competition from countries without carbon pricing, these high-polluting sectors currently receive most of their credits free of charge.
Meet the panellists:
Vicky Pollard, European Commission Policy Officer
Vicky Pollard is head of the unit in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Climate Action, covering modelling and economic analysis for climate ambition and policy, the greenhouse gas inventory and reporting of climate action as well as climate science.
Pollard has worked on climate change for the Commission since 2006, covering a number of issues including international negotiations, climate cooperation with OECD countries, the implementation of the EU emissions trading system, cooperation on ETS design, international carbon markets and work on just transition. From 2014 to 2019, Pollard was Counsellor for Environment and Climate at the EU’s delegation to China in Beijing.
She has a Masters in Environmental Economics and worked in a number of posts in consultancy, the EU wind energy association and the UK government, before joining the European Commission in 2004.
Delara Burkhardt, MEP
Delara Burkhardt is an MEP for Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) and became the country’s youngest MEP when she took up the position in 2019.
The Iranian-German politician is a member of the European Parliament’s committee on the environment, where she deals with climate and biodiversity protection and the circular economy. She is currently working on introducing European rules for deforestation-free supply chains. Burkhardt also acts as spokesperson for the SPD delegation in the European Parliament on environmental policies.
Burkhardt has a Master’s degree in socioeconomics from the University of Hamburg and participated in the Obama Foundation’s emerging leaders programme in 2022.
Florence Rabier, ECMWF Director General
Florence Rabier has been Director-General of ECMWF since January 2016, leading the intergovernmental organisation through a period of major changes and expansion.
She is an internationally recognised expert in Numerical Weather Prediction and contributed to delivering major changes at both ECMWF and Météo-France. She is well known within the meteorological community for her key role in implementing an innovative data assimilation method, which was a first worldwide and contributed to an optimal use of satellite observations in weather forecasting.
Rabier has been awarded the title of “Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur”, and the Great Prize of the Air and Space Academy for the IASI project (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer) and its atmospheric and weather applications. She is also an Honorary Member of the American Meteorological Society and a fellow of the National Academy of Technology of France.
Michal Wiezik, MEP
Michal Wiezik is a Slovak MEP and part of the Renew Europe group. He is a member of the European Parliament’s committee on the environment.
Wieznik is also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development and the European Parliament Intergroup on Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas.
Wieznik studied environmental protection at the Technical University in Zvolen where he also completed a PhD and taught as a professor.
