Environmental movements in an atypical April, April 2020

The postponement of COP26 and the creation of the European Alliance for a Green Recovery have marked a month of April in which emissions have been reduced and we have seen how fauna and flora recovered urban spaces. The fight against climate change is far from apart from the complicated situation we are experiencing all over the planet.

The fight against climate change is far from apart from the complicated situation we are experiencing all over the planet. It is true that emissions have been moderately reduced and that the images of fauna and flora taking urban spaces are exciting us and at the same time warning of how careless we have been with our house; but we already commented in the FECnews of March that the Covid-19 crisis could become a real Trojan horse in the strategy to face what remains our main challenge, the fight against Climate Change

In this aspect, the month of April has left us at least two relevant news in this regard. I am referring to the postponement of COP26 in Glasgow to 2021 and the creation of the first European Alliance for a Green Recovery. On the first issue, from the Private Foundation Company & Climate, postponing COP26 seems to us a completely correct decision and we agree with what the fourth vice president and Minister of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, said at the time shortly after the news was known. For the minister, the “postponement is not good news, although justified” and we are in a situation that “undermines the energy and the needs to work seriously to respond to the call of COP 26”.

Postponing COP26 was necessary for several reasons. The first is that we must control the health crisis so that all parties can attend the meeting on equal terms. Secondly, because, no matter how many telematic meetings may take place, parallel summits move thousands of people who prepare documents, contents and agreements, and these must be decided in person.

Thirdly, because important decisions are going to be taken in Glasgow: countries will be required to submit new Emission Reduction Commitments (NDCs), more ambitious than the current ones; and Article 6, one of the pillars of the Rulebook of the Paris Agreement – in force since January 1, 2021 – which stipulates the creation of a global carbon market, must be closed. These three elements, along with other relevant ones such as knowing who will be the president of the US, and what his political and climate agenda will be, justify this break to later take greater momentum in the negotiations.

European Alliance for a Green Recovery

The President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen announced at COP25 that Europe was going to present a Green New Deal, which was going to be comparable to the American adventure that half a century ago concluded with the arrival of the first man on the Moon. Europe wants to return to prominence in the fight against climate change and be a carbon-neutral continent by 2050.

This megaproject also took a step forward during this month of April with the creation of the European Alliance for a Green Recovery. It is an initiative launched by Pascal Canfin, president of the Environment Committee of the European Parliament, and 180 other political leaders, entrepreneurs, trade unions, NGOs and expert groups whose main objectives are “to support and implement solutions to prepare our economies for the world of tomorrow”.

Among its members, ministers from 11 countries (including Teresa Ribera), 79 MEPs from 17 Member States, 37 CEOs, 28 business associations representing 10 different sectors, trade union representatives, 7 NGOs and 6 expert groups

The expert groups will work to implement ecologically sustainable solutions in the economic strategy of the European Union, with the fight against climate change being the core of this strategy to get out of the crisis produced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Alliance calls on the European Commission to use the Green New Deal to mobilise green investment packages that enable the recovery and economic transformation of EU countries to emerge from this economic crisis, committing to the fight against climate change and the protection of biodiversity.

They do so by sharing the belief that economic recovery will only come with massive investments to protect and create jobs and to support all businesses, regions and sectors that have suffered the sudden shutdown of the economy. In a second phase, the Alliance is committed to contributing to post-crisis investment as it will work to build recovery and transformation plans that enshrine the fight against climate change and biodiversity as a key pillar of the economic strategy.

Private Foundation Company & Climate
April 2020