The Brief — Green ‘planification’ is no longer a dirty word

The climate crisis is real, and simply hoping that EU citizens will voluntarily change their ways enough to create the necessary change is idealistic at best. European politicians are coming around to the idea of a more rigorously planned approach, so-called state ‘planification’.

Waterways are running dry in entire regions of France, and fires have eaten up hectares of forest months before the summer. Gas supply ahead of the 2024 winter is already under threat.

For a long time, the political messaging around climate change realities has been optimistic. Cutting back on energy consumption ought to be a ‘happy’ decision, one people ‘choose’ for the sake of protecting the planet. But some political leaders are starting to review their discourse.

“We must move from a market-driven green transition to one of state planification,” French MP David Amiel told the Institute for Climate Economics conference in early April, arguing for a multi-year public finance programming law dedicated to fighting climate change, and a rethink of long-term investments.

Shortly after, the renewable heat sector presented its ‘Marshall Plan’ for powering its industry to French Energy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher, with dedicated energy objectives bills expected in the next month by all energy producing stakeholders.

Planning is not easy, especially in democratic systems with high government turnover.

In other words, while state planification may be crucial, getting this is difficult.

It will be crucial to legitimise the scale of the change by underlining its gravity – akin to that of a war or pandemic. The EU was recently reminded of the post-World War II US bailout when it rolled out its post-COVID NextGenerationEU plan of similar economic scale.

In early April, two French MPs, Antoine Armand and Raphaël Schellenberger, produced their report on French energy sovereignty, which took a rear-view mirror look at the mistakes of the past 30 years with the goal of drawing up some lessons for the next 30.

Although some people consider their conclusions to be a little hasty, the two parliamentarians propose that politics should be thought of as a concept delivering for generations, rather than “100-day” reform programmes on which political leaders base their legacy, and which often achieve little.

“Ecological planning” is on the way in at the EU level, according to centrist MEP Pascal Canfin, a tireless advocate of the European Green Deal. Amiel, for his part, told EURACTIV France that the EU is undergoing a “real transformation”.

In the words of The Left MEP Emmanuel Maurel, the ideological shift to long-term planification must be tackled in all areas of the economy – the end of fossil fuels, reindustrialisation, long-term electricity contracts, European protectionism – if we are no longer to be the “useful idiots of the global village”.

“In another era, we would have looked the other way,” Jean Quatremer, a French journalist specialising in European issues, said. But in the face of the American Inflation Reduction Act, the EU is finally moving, and that’s good, he continued.

Let’s hope that this continues, and that while our house is burning, we don’t become distracted from our plan on how to put the flames out.

The Roundup 

Despite favourable winds prompted by the EU’s rising climate ambition, the European wind energy industry is facing a combination of challenges caused by inflation, supply chain issues, and growing competition from cheaper Chinese manufacturers.

Every plane departing from an EU airport will have to partially run on green jet fuel from 2025, according to a deal reached by the European Parliament and EU member states late on Tuesday (25 April).

While European governments boost their wind power ambitions, the industry is struggling with rising production costs and growing competition from China.

Member states will need to lift unilateral bans on the import of agricultural goods from Ukraine in order to receive the promised financial aid to support their farmers, EU agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski told agriculture ministers in a closed meeting.

EU lawmakers adopted a resolution on Wednesday (26 April) calling for coordinated action on foreign interference, warning of risks in the lead-up to next year’s European Parliament elections.

Don’t forget to check out our Health Brief for a roundup of weekly news on healthcare across Europe.

Look out for…

• Innovation Commissioner Mariya Gabriel in Ispra, Italy: visits the Joint Research Centre and delivers an opening speech at the workshop “Translating radiotheranostic cancer research into clinical practice in Europe.” 
• Equality Commissioner Helena Dalli makes a keynote speech for the Roma Week Event.
• Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis participates in the Eurofi High Level Seminar 2023. 
• Jobs and Social Rights Commissioner Nicolas Schmit has an online meeting with Ukraine’s Minister for Social Policy Oksana Zholnovych, together with Commissioner Dalli.