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Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, heating up at roughly twice the global average rate. As temperatures continue to rise, a critical question emerges: is Europe prepared for a hotter future?
This question is the centre of this edition of The Ring from the European Parliament in Brussels, featuring Italian Green Benedetta Scuderi and German EPP Andrea Wechsler.
The challenge goes far beyond climate policy. Cities are struggling to deal with extreme heat, energy systems are facing growing pressure, and governments are being forced to find new ways of protecting society’s most vulnerable.
The debate is also increasingly ideological. Broader questions are being raised about consumption, health and sustainability. Should we forget climate change for a moment and just stay in our own air-conditioned homes, if we have one?
Or is it time for drastic action to be taken to mitigate the worst effects of climate change? Difficult choices lie ahead – are people on board?
Scuderi and Wechsler clashed repeatedly over the EU’s Green Deal and the lessons learnt from the current heatwave. And more than once, the debate became political.
According to Wechsler, “if we want to really convincingly decarbonize, we need to be open not only for electrons, but also for molecules. And what I see the Greens going for is that they do not treat all technologies that we need for decarbonization equally. This is something (where) we don’t get your party (Greens) on board”.
Scuderi accused the EPP of watering down elements of the European Green Deal together with the far-right, stepping back from related social legislation and still relying too much on fossil fuels. “How can we expect to convince the rest of the world to have good targets, good policies, if we are the first that are doing steps backwards?”, Scuderi stated.
But they also agreed on some points, especially on a statement released last week by Simon Stiell, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
He said: “Until humanity stops burning colossal amounts of coal, oil and gas, extreme heat will keep getting worse, and other climate impacts – from mega-droughts, floods, wildfires and storms – will keep hammering every economy and population harder each year.”
But as the debate showed, a consensus on the right European climate policy remains difficult to attain.
The Ring is hosted by Stefan Grobe, produced by Luis Albertos Altarejos and Amaia Echevarria, and edited by Vassilis Glynos.
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