Peter Liese: Climate policy in times of Trump 2.0 will be extremely challenging, but if we do it right, we can still make progress

“Climate policy in times of Trump 2.0 will be extremely challenging, but if we do it right, we can still make progress,” said the environmental policy spokesperson of the largest political group in the European Parliament (EPP, Christian Democrats), MEP Dr. Peter Liese, on the occasion of Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday. “Trump is challenging us dramatically in terms of climate policy. I find it particularly worrying that major financial institutions have already terminated their membership in sustainability organizations before the inauguration. I have no doubt that Trump will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, just as he did in his first term. Partly because of Trump and his expected anti-climate protection policy, I am unfortunately convinced that the 1.5 degree target cannot be maintained in the long term,” said Liese on Monday morning.

Nevertheless, he warns against giving up. “During Donald Trump's first term in office 2017-2021, dramatic progress was made on climate protection in Europe and many other parts of the world. In 2019, for example, the European Union set the goal of climate neutrality by 2050 and since then almost all other countries in the world have set climate neutrality targets. International politics has therefore survived Trump. Even if the international debates are now becoming even tougher and the 1.5 degree target is no longer achievable, it is worth fighting for. Every tenth of a degree counts and the Paris Agreement is not primarily talking about 1.5 degrees, but about below 2 degrees and this target is still realistic. However, we must design our climate protection policy much more intelligently. We need to achieve the EU climate targets in a technology-neutral way and with much less bureaucracy. I strongly support the European Commission’s plans to propose cutting red tape in various areas such as corporate due diligence, corporate sustainability reporting, taxonomy and CBAM in a so-called omnibus procedure. At the same time, we urgently need the Clean Industrial Deal to put industry in a position to actually implement the ambitious climate targets and to prevent European industries from relocating. Only then can we be a role model for the rest of the world. In times of Trump 2.0, this is more important than ever,” emphasized the Christian Democrat environmental politician.