No to a Climate Law for Polluters!

Statement

30 Jun

Science shows that rapid and sustained real emission reductions are the most effective action to reduce the worst impacts of the climate crisis.

EU climate policy stands at a crossroads: Will the European Commission propose a Climate Law that ends fossil fuel use and reflects the EU’s fair share of climate responsibility? Or will it choose political convenience—abandoning that goal under pressure from corporate and populist interests, and turning to risky, unjust carbon offsetting and other false solutions?

69 organisations signed onto this statement to send a clear message: the EU Climate Law (which will set its climate targets for 2040) must be adopted without provisions for international carbon offsetting or harmful Carbon Dioxide Removals (CDR). It must honour its ambition to end reliance on fossil fuels.

Taking responsibility for the EU’s past and present role in causing the climate crisis means doubling down on a just and full fossil fuel phase-out not hiding behind false solutions as currently proposed. The Law as planned will send a dangerous signal far beyond EU borders. The climate and biodiversity crises are already harming people, especially vulnerable communities and populations largely in the Global South, who have least contributed to the climate crisis.

Upcoming EU Climate Law proposal risks fueling climate crisis

EU Net Zero and Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra plans to bypass the EU’s obligation to cut emissions by relying on loopholes like international offsets and CDR, according to recent reports. He was also reported to be actively lobbying German leaders to endorse his plan. The European Commission’s proposal is a smokescreen for giving license to fossil fuel use beyond 2050. It also diverts critical resources and public funds from real climate solutions and climate finance.

Carbon dioxide removal approaches, such as Direct Air Capture with Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS) and Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) are unproven, extremely costly and especially destructive if scaled. BECCS, along with other biomass-based removals such as biochar, stand to worsen forest degradation and biodiversity loss as they incentivize large-scale logging and wood burning. Relying on forests and soil to compensate for fossil emissions is not only based on a false equation but often locks in destructive practices like industrial monoculture plantations or no-till agriculture reliant on pesticides. It also risks exposing small-scale farmers and Indigenous Peoples to land-speculation, land-grabbing and human rights abuses.

Carbon offsetting schemes serve to prolong the fossil fuel-based economy. Carbon offsetting was initially part of the EU ETS, the Bloc's flagship carbon pricing instrument. Offsetting was subsequently banned after nearly bringing the ETS down. Adopting a Climate Law that includes carbon offsetting would show a remarkable immunity to learning. Even more so as accounting rules under the EU’s Carbon Removals Certification Framework are so flawed that they will likely add GHG emissions to the atmosphere rather than removing them from it. Buying emission reductions achieved in the Global South to offset emissions in the EU is a dangerous form of climate colonialism that prioritises polluting corporations and the EU over lives and rights of people in the Global South.

EU Climate Law must not give polluters a free pass

Given the scale of climate catastrophe, for the EU to allow international offsets and technological CDR gives a lifeline to polluting industries such as the fossil fuel, agribusiness, plastics and petrochemical industries.

We say no to an EU Climate Law that puts polluting industries over people and climate by embracing the use of international offsets and CDR approaches. We call on the Commission to deliver an EU Climate Law and its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the UN climate negotiations that clearly reflects the bloc's responsibility for the climate crisis. That means a full fossil fuel phase out and a just transition.

The Commission is set to propose its law to the European Parliament and Council, we still have an opportunity to stop this dangerous path.

Sign the statement

In addition to Real Zero Europe members, the statement was also signed by:

350.org
Aalem for Orphan and Vulnerable Children, Inc.
AbibiNsroma Foundation
AirClim
Association For Promotion Sustainable Development
Association for Farmers Rights Defense, AFRD
Association of voluntary actions for Society (AVAS)
Association pour la Conservation et la Protection des Écosystèmes des Lacs et l'Agriculture Durable
BUND e.V. (Friends of the Earth Germany)
BUNDjugend (Young friends of the Earth Germany)
Bürgerinitiative gegen CO2-Endlager
Center for International Environmental Law
Centre for Climate Safety
Centro de Documentación en Derechos Humanos "Segundo Montes Mozo SJ" (CSMM)
Childrens Rights Over Flights
Climáximo
Comité Schone Lucht
Common Weal
Congo Basin Conservation Society CBCS-Network
Corporate Europe Observatory
ECOCITY
EJAtlas.org.org
Earth Ethics, Inc.
Earth Thrive
Enginyeria Sense Fronteres
Extinction Rebellion Ireland
Fern
Food & Water Action Europe
Foodrise
Forum Ökologie & Papier
Friends of the Earth International
Friends of the Earth Malta
GRAIN
Global Missions International (GLOMINT)
Green Finance Observatory
Green Impact
Heartpolitics
Heinrich Boell Foundation
Indian Social Action Forum
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
LaKunaBi
Leave it in the Ground Initiative (LINGO)
Leefmilieu
Mothers Rise Up
NOAH
Naturefriends Greece
Network of youth organizations engaged in climate change, biodiversity conservation, wetlands and forests
Not Here Not Anywhere
PowerShift e.V.
ReCommon
SOMO
Seas At Risk
Sustainable Europe Reseach Institute
United Kingdom Without Incineration Network (UKWIN)
Verdens Skove / Forests of the World
Wall of Women
Women Engage for a Common Future - WECF international
urgewald
ÖBV - Via Campesina Austria