Global Warming Policy Forum | 12 Sept 2014
[Conservative MEP] Miguel Arias Canete, Spain’s former agriculture and environment minister, was nominated as the European Union’s next commissioner for climate and energy, becoming the first single supervisor of those two policy areas. The new commission will take office as energy policy is moving up the EU agenda amid a crisis in Ukraine, the transit country for around half of Russian natural gas to Europe, and the unrest in Middle East. –Ewa Krukowska, Bloomberg 10 September 2014
The Green10, the alliance of leading environmental NGOs at EU level, supported by over 20 million EU citizens and active in all 28 Member States, wrote today an open letter to President Jean-Claude Juncker to express grave concerns over the direction the EU seems to be taking with the announcement of his new team. The coalition highlights that the structure of the new Commission, the mission letters, and the choice of Commissioners all reveal a serious downgrading of environment and a roll back of EU commitments to sustainable development, resource efficiency, air quality, biodiversity protection and climate action. —WWF Europe, 11 September 2014
Just two days after being appointed by Jean-Claude Junker, the EU’s new climate and energy commissioner is under pressure to drop his shares in two oil companies which members of European parliament say represent a conflict of interest. The MEPs say EU’s proposed new climate and energy commissioner, Miguel Arias Cañete, must dispose of any oil company shareholdings before they consider giving his nomination a green light at European parliament hearings later this month. One environment committee member, the German social-democrat Jo Leinen, told the Guardian there was “no guarantee” that Miguel Arias Cañete would be confirmed at European Parliament hearings, which have powers to send back proposed commissioner lists to Juncker. –Arthur Neslen, The Guardian, 12 September 2014
Skepticism of global warming may be more widespread than it is portrayed in the media, with nearly half of British lawmakers being labelled as climate “skeptics” and India’s prime minister casting doubt on claims of man-made global warming. A special report by PR Week shows that a vast majority of conservative members of UK Parliament are [doubtful] that mankind is the main driver behind global temperature rises. While a slight majority (51 percent) of members of parliament (MPs) say that global warming “is largely man made” and an established fact, nearly three quarters of conservative MPs disagree. –Michael Bastasch, The Daily Caller, 10 September 2014
1) Brussels Anti-Green Purge: New EU Leaders Neuter Green Lobby – European Voice, 11 September 2014
2) New EU Leaders Abolishes Climate Commission, Submerged Under Rising Energy Agenda – Bloomberg 10 September 2014
3) Green 10 Furious: New EU Commission Sidelining The Environment – WWF Europe, 11 September 2014
4) New EU Energy And Climate Commissioner Under Pressure From Green Campaigners – The Guardian, 12 September 2014
5) Global Warming ‘Skeptics’ Hold Political Sway From The UK To India – The Daily Caller, 10 September 2014
1) Brussels Anti-Green Purge: New EU Leaders Neuter Green Lobby
European Voice, 11 September 2014
Business groups have welcomed Juncker’s new ‘streamlined’ Commission structure, but green campaigners have decried the loss of dedicated environment and climate commissioners.
Dave Keating
Jean-Claude Juncker’s decision to group commissioners into teams serving under a vice-president has been welcomed by some interest groups, and derided by others.
Environmental campaigners are unhappy about the new organisational structure, while industry groups say it will avoid disjointed or conflicting policies and will reduce red tape.
Juncker has grouped energy, climate and environment portfolios together serving under Alenka Bratušek, the vice-president for energy union. Within this subject area, he has merged four existing commissioner posts into two. Energy and climate, which are currently two separate portfolios, have been combined into one post, to be held by Miguel Arias Cañete from Spain. Environment and fisheries, previously two separate posts, have been merged into one, to be held by Karmenu Vella from Malta.
The remaining commissioners on the team will be Ireland’s Phil Hogan as agriculture commissioner, Romania’s Corina Creţu as regional policy commissioner, and Portugal’s Carlos Moedas as research, science and innovation commissioner.
Rumours of the intention to combine the climate and energy portfolios have been sparking alarm among environmentalists for weeks. But the elimination of a dedicated environment portfolio came as a genuine shock to green groups.
Today (11 September) the ‘Green 10’ – an alliance of European environmental NGOs – sent a letter to Juncker saying that his restructuring decisions suggest a “de-facto shutdown of EU environmental policymaking”.
The campaign groups say that placing these commissioners under a vice-president for energy union “could imply that climate action is considered subordinate to energy market considerations”. Only vice-presidents will be able to put policy proposals on to the Commission’s agenda, according to Juncker’s new system. The campaigners say there is a “virtual lack of any reference to environment in the responsibilities of the vice-presidents”.
“The biggest change is the structural blocks put on any new legislative activity,” said Tony Long, director of campaign group WWF. “Every avenue is blocked because it all has to go through a vice-president and then a first vice-president.”
The campaigners say the mandate letter sent by Juncker to Vella indicates that the commissioner’s role will be one of environmental deregulation. […]
Mark Fodor, executive director of campaign group Central and Eastern Europe Bankwatch, said the letter suggests that Juncker is back-tracking from previous commitments. “By missing out the crucial role of EU funding for addressing the climate challenge, the president-elect is showing complete disregard for the future of our planet,” he said.
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2) New EU Leaders Abolishes Climate Commission, Submerged Under Rising Energy Agenda
Bloomberg 10 September 2014
Ewa Krukowska
Miguel Arias Canete, Spain’s former agriculture and environment minister, was nominated as the European Union’s next commissioner for climate and energy, becoming the first single supervisor of those two policy areas.
Canete, 64, was chosen by European Commission President-designate Jean-Claude Juncker to take over from Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard and Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger. He will oversee drafting energy and climate policies for the next decade following a political deal on carbon-reduction, energy efficiency and renewable energy targets that EU leaders aim to reach in October.
“Climate action and energy policy go hand-in-hand and are now in one pair of hands,” the EU said in a statement today in Brussels.
The new commission will take office as energy policy is moving up the EU agenda amid a crisis in Ukraine, the transit country for around half of Russian natural gas to Europe, and the unrest in Middle East. The 28-nation bloc also aims to lead the global fight against climate change as nations worldwide prepare for a global carbon-reduction deal in Paris in 2015.
“Being able to build a bridge between Europe and Latin America may help during climate negotiations in Lima building to Paris next year,” Peter Sweatman, head of Madrid-based consultancy Climate Strategy S.L., said today in a telephone interview. “He may also be able to bring a fresh look at the balance between supply-side and demand-side policies within Europe’s energy strategy.”
3) Green 10 Furious: New EU Commission Sidelining The Environment
WWF Europe, 11 September 2014
The Green10, the alliance of leading environmental NGOs at EU level, supported by over 20 million EU citizens and active in all 28 Member States, wrote today an open letter to President Jean-Claude Juncker to express grave concerns over the direction the EU seems to be taking with the announcement of his new team.
The coalition highlights that the structure of the new Commission, the mission letters, and the choice of Commissioners all reveal a serious downgrading of environment and a roll back of EU commitments to sustainable development, resource efficiency, air quality, biodiversity protection and climate action.
In particular the Green10 are concerned that:
• The move from a Commissioner with dedicated responsibilities for environment to having this policy area shared with other demanding dossiers represents a clear relegation of environmental issues in the order of political priorities. This is reinforced by the virtual lack of any reference to environment in the responsibilities of the Vice-Presidents.
• The mandate to the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Commissioner seems entirely centered on deregulation, asking a review of all current major initiatives underway. It does not mention the need to achieve any EU objectives, let alone take new initiatives.
• The inclusion in the mandate of orders to consider changing the EU Nature protection legislation, pre-empting the results of the ongoing fitness check, suggests a high level decision to weaken biodiversity protection in the EU. This is even more troubling as the Environment portfolio is given to a Commissioner whose government is under intense international criticism for failing to implement EU bird conservation legislation, which the Commissioner will now be in position to amend.
• The merging of the climate and energy portfolios and putting this Commissioner under a Vice President for Energy Union could imply that Climate Action is considered subordinate to energy market considerations.
• The choice of a Climate and Energy Commissioner with well-known links to the fossil fuel industry raises issues of conflict of interest.
• The shift of the responsibility for relations with the European Chemicals Agency, whose job is to protect European citizens from harmful chemicals, from DG Environment to DG Enterprise shows a clear bias towards prioritizing business interests over protection of human health and the environment and flies in the face of the objectives of the REACH Regulation.
• The fact that sustainable development, resource efficiency and the green economy are not covered at all at Vice-President level implies a Commission that will be operating on the basis of an outdated paradigm of economic growth, one that benefits the industries and jobs of the past over those of the future, and detached from real world constraints and limits.
• Your promise not to authorize any legislative initiative that is not in line with your priorities, combined with the virtual absence of any environmental priorities, suggests a de-facto shut down of EU environmental policy making.
4) New EU Energy And Climate Commissioner Under Pressure From Green Campaigners
The Guardian, 12 September 2014
Arthur Neslen
Miguel Arias Cañete told by MEPs that he must give up his shares in two oil companies if his nomination is to be approved
The MEPs say EU’s proposed new climate and energy commissioner, Miguel Arias Cañete, must dispose of any oil company shareholdings before they consider giving his nomination a green light at European parliament hearings later this month.
One environment committee member, the German social-democrat Jo Leinen, told the Guardian there was “no guarantee” that Miguel Arias Cañete would be confirmed at European Parliament hearings, which have powers to send back proposed commissioner lists to Juncker.
In his declaration of interests, the former Spanish agriculture and environment minister lists holdings in two oil companies, Ducor SL and Petrologis Canarias SL, as well as work as a lawyer.
The current worth of his stock is unknown but Cañete valued the shares at €326,000 (£259,000) in a Spanish government interests statement in 2011. His office declined to respond to any questions about the matter.
“A commissioner has to be independent from special interests and in my opinion it is obligatory that he give up any shares in oil companies if he wants to fulfil his duties in office free from any conflict of interests,” Leinen, a German social democrat MEP, said. “He must not be compromised by commercial or personal interests.”
Cañete had previously served as president of both companies but stepped down in 2012. His brother-in law, Miguel Domecq Solis, became director of both Petrologis andDucar. His son Miguel Arias Domecq is a board member at Ducar.
A close ally of the current Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, Cañete’s nomination as climate commissioner surprised many, after the new EU president, Jean-Claude Juncker’s high-profile pledge that 40% of his new commissioners would be women.
Cañete, an independently-wealthy vintage car collector, was criticised for using sexist language to disparage a female Socialist opponent in a televised debate earlier this year. “Holding a debate with a woman is complicated, because showing intellectual superiority could be seen as sexist,” he said.
But it will be his oil industry involvement while he was agriculture and environment minister – itself the subject of ‘conflict of interests’allegations – that is likely to set the tone of the parliamentary hearings.
“We will question him in the hearing about his commitment to a low carbon economy as well as his personal and political integrity and we expect clear answers,” Leinen said. “Parliament has refused various candidates in the past so there is no guarantee that he will come out as a commissioner.”
Leinen was one of 25 all-party MEPs – including Conservatives and Liberals – on the environment committee who signed a letter to Juncker last week protesting leaks of this week’s decision to merge the EU’s energy and climate change portfolios in the new administration…
“A year before the conclusion of a new global climate agreement, this is not the right time to send the opposite signal by not appointing a dedicated climate action Commissioner,” the MEPs wrote.
5) Global Warming ‘Skeptics’ Hold Political Sway From The UK To India
The Daily Caller, 10 September 2014
Michael Bastasch
Skepticism of global warming may be more widespread than it is portrayed in the media, with nearly half of British lawmakers being labelled as climate “skeptics” and India’s prime minister casting doubt on claims of man-made global warming.
A special report by PR Week shows that a vast majority of conservative members of UK Parliament are [doubtful] that mankind is the main driver behind global temperature rises. While a slight majority (51 percent) of members of parliament (MPs) say that global warming “is largely man made” and an established fact, nearly three quarters of conservative MPs disagree.
PR Week reports that 53 percent of conservative MPs agree with the statement that it “has not yet been conclusively proved that climate change is man made.” Another 18 percent of conservative MPs say “man-made climate change is environmentalist propaganda”.
A public poll also taken by PR Week shows that only about one-third of British voters believe global warming claims have been exaggerated. The poll also showed that 80 percent of British voters believes that global warming is happening and 60 percent believe it’s mainly caused by humans.
An Ipsos Mori poll from July shows that the U.S., UK and Australia still have large numbers of people who remain skeptical of global warming, despite the huge media and political blitz from environmentalists and politicians. About a third of Americans remain skeptical of global warming, according to Ipsos Mori. They are joined by about a quarter of Brits and Aussies.
On the other side of the globe, India’s newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently made some comments that have the media outing him as a global warming skeptic.
Answering questions about global warming on Teachers’ Day, Modi told people that “[c]limate change has not occurred,” adding that “[p]eople have changed.” Modi then gave an example of how elderly Indians are complaining of harsher winters every year.
