Former European Commission vice president Frans Timmermans argues that a system of solidarity, where wealthier individuals contribute more, is crucial for the success of the EU's green energy transition.
Richer people should pay more for the European transition to green energy , in a kind of solidarity system to share the burden, according to Frans Timmermans, the former European Commission vice president and one of the architects of the EU Green Deal. The European Green Deal is a key pillar of the EU’s ambition to become carbon neutral by 2050 and aims in an interim target of the bloc to have at least 55% less net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.
EU governments have recently seen a growing backlash against many of the green energy initiatives including new heating systems and targets to boost electric vehicle EV sales. Unless the measures in the energy transition are backed by a system of solidarity in which the rich pay more, EU voters will reject the green policies, Timmermans told the Financial Times. “The transition will be stopped by European voters,” said Timmermans, the former European Commissioner for the Green Deal, who is now leader of the Dutch Green/Labour alliance. Wealthier people were early adopters of clean energy technologies, while the poorer were left behind. The rich haven’t changed their habits to reduce their carbon footprint, but the poor didn’t have a choice and were “reducing their carbon footprints out of bitter necessity instead of because they have embraced the idea,” Timmermans told FT. Bruegel, a Brussels-based European think tank that specializes in economics, has recently estimated what the EU needs to get to its stated goals of net zero and how much it would cost. It appears that, for these goals to be hit, the bloc would need to spend 1.3 trillion euros, or about $1.4 trillion, every year until 2030. After that, the price for the transition jumps to 1.54 trillion euros $1.59 trillion annually and stays this much until 2050
GREEN ENERGY EU SOLIDARITY CARBON EMISSIONS CLIMATE CHANGE
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