A green challenge for the EU: Former world leaders call for climate action

A group of former world leaders is urging Europe to keep pushing its green agenda, even as trade wars and defence spending draw attention away from climate issues. Former Irish President Mary Robinson told Reuters.

The Elders, a group founded in 2007 by former South African President Nelson Mandela that, according to its website, works for peace, justice, human rights and a sustainable planet, is due to meet with the EU and NATO over moves to soften planned climate disclosure rules in response to competitiveness concerns.

The EU’s influence on climate

Although the EU might seem to have no reason to seek this role, CNN data show that most of the world’s planet-warming pollution came from just a few countries.

China, India and the United States naturally dominate the world’s 20 biggest polluters, but the European Union ranks fourth. These four polluters were responsible for 83% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2022, so their responses to the climate crisis have a huge impact on the rest of the world.

In this context, Robinson, who was president of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, said she was concerned by the plans and that the EU has an opportunity to take the lead from the United States in the rapidly growing clean technology market and in climate policy more broadly.

“The crisis, with the US federal government pulling back from everything related to climate and science, is an opportunity for the European Union, the United Kingdom and, frankly, the rest of the world,” she said.

The market for renewable energy technologies will grow

The global clean technology market, including solar photovoltaic technologies and wind turbines, could grow from 700 billion dollars in 2023 to more than 2 trillion dollars by 2035, approaching the value of the global oil market, the International Energy Agency said.

“The EU’s fastest possible progress on the green transition is exactly the way to respond. It is really important for Europe to stick to its principles, stick to its green industrial policy and not back down at all,” Robinson added.

Robinson also warned Brussels not to let Russia’s war in Ukraine, trade wars and the anti-climate rhetoric led by US President Donald Trump dictate its longer-term thinking on climate issues. She added that many companies across the bloc are willing and able to support the green transition.

Robinson, along with former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and international human rights campaigner Denis Mukwege, will also urge Brussels to take a leading role in tackling the world’s greatest threats and call on the EU to submit an ambitious climate action plan on time.