While Ribera did not address carbon credits directly, she suggested the EU should follow the board’s advice — comments that hint at divisions between her and Hoekstra.
“The data provided by science is not negotiable,” she told POLITICO.
“Our duty is to find the most straightforward and economically viable path to reach our goals — without ever losing sight of our ultimate objective: to stop dangerous climate change. It’s not enough to feel reasonably comfortable just because we’re doing something.”
The board’s report, she added, “shows that there is still much to be done, and the task won’t be easy. But facing the consequences would be far harder if we chose to ignore the true scale of the problem.”
Ribera, the Commission’s vice president for climate and competition issues, oversees the work of Hoekstra, who is in charge of drafting the 2040 proposal. The two commissioners come from competing political families — Ribera from the center-left Socialists, and Hoekstra from the center-right European People’s Party.
In an interview with POLITICO last week, Ribera declined to endorse or reject carbon credits, which let one country pay for emissions-slashing projects abroad and deduct the CO2 cuts from its own tally.
