Priority

Breakthrough for climate budget

EU budget 2020

The European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission agreed on a green EU budget for the year 2020. The climate budget is finally becoming real under pressure from the Greens/EFA and the European Parliament. The ambitious fight against youth unemployment threatened to fail because of national egotisms in the Council. Yet, in the end, the European Parliament prevailed.

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Natural gas - © Ratfink1973 Pixabay — © Ratfink1973 Pixabay

EIB takes big step towards becoming a climate bank but loopholes remain

European Investment Bank

EU Member States and the Commission agreed to a new energy lending policy for the European Investment Bank. It is a good step in the right direction and a milestone on the road to ending investments for fossil fuels altogether. The EIB needs to become the climate bank of Europe but we're not quite there yet.

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Trump at Andeavor Refinery ©Official White House Photos by D. Myles Cullen

US formally requests to withdraw from Paris Climate Agreement

Climate change

Donald Trump is shirking the USA's responsibility to the world and to its own people by pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

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EIB must become climate bank & stop support for fossil fuels

Climate

Today, the European Parliament will debate 'Greening the European Investment Bank' (EIB) at the plenary session in Brussels. The Greens/EFA group support calls for turning the EIB into a climate bank and are calling for the EIB to stop financial support for any fossil fuel projects by 2020, ...

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European Parliament votes to make the MFF work for the climate

EU budget

Today a large majority of MEPs voted to make the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027 work for the climate. Rasmus Andresen, shadow rapporteur for the Greens/EFA group on the EU's 2020 budget, comments: "The European Parliament wants to turn the EU budget into the driving f...

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Right intentions and promising words are not enough

Hearing with Frans Timmermans

On the hearing of Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice President-designate for a “European Green Deal”, Bas Eickhout, Coordinator of the Greens/EFA in the Committee on Environment, comments:

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MEPs vote for ambitious budget that invests in climate protection, youth & sea rescue

Quote from Rasmus Andresen MEP

MEPs voted for more than €2 billion to be invested in climate protection and around €500 million to combat youth unemployment and promote youth exchanges through the Erasmus programme. The Greens/EFA group was successful in its demand for a new budget line for an EU sea rescue mission.

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Greens/EFA call for urgent action on oceans & extreme sea-levels

IPCC Special Report on Oceans

The dramatic melting of ice and rising sea levels must be an urgent warning that we cannot wait any longer for real action on climate change. The EU can't afford to come away empty-handed from the UN Climate Change Conference in Chile this December and in Glasgow next year after the poor showing of this week's summit in New York.

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European flags — © Photo European Parliament

Greens/EFA Debriefing

Plenary week, 16-19 September 2019

Greens/EFA priorities for the plenary week included: Hungary – Rule of Law, Amazon Fires, Christine Lagarde appointed President of the European Central Bank, Climate Debate Ahead of UN Summit, Brexit, New von der Leyen Commission, Money Laundering Greens/EFA nominees for the Sakharov Prize, Patentability of plants and essential biological processes, Laura Codruța Kövesi, new European Chief Prosecutor.

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windmill_climate@constantine-fountos — @constantine-fountos

Greens/EFA demand urgent action on climate

Global climate strike

We need fast action now. CO2 must have a fair price. We urge the new European Commission to make climate priority a reality and increase our CO2-reduction target from the weak 40 per cent to at least 65 per cent by 2030. It is also unacceptable for aircraft and ships to not pay the price and to benefit from tax subsidies.

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Global Climate Strike

20-27 September

This September, millions of us will walk out of our workplaces and homes to join young climate strikers on the streets and demand an end to the age of fossil fuels. Join the climate strike

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Greens/EFA call for new proposal for Common European Agricultural Policy

IPCC report on climate change and land

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a damming report on climate change and the devastating effects of desertification, land degradation, land management its consequences for people, animals, the environment and climate.

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