Czech government and industry call for realistic climate targets

A substantial part of the State of the Union presented by European Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen was dedicated to climate change and the Green Deal for Europe. EC President presented her vision of climate neutral EU by 2050, mentioning that current climate goals set for 2030 need to be revised in order to be on track to meet this goal. Therefore, she proposed to increase the target in the area of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

The ultimate goal is to reach climate neutrality by 2050, meaning that EU Member States would neutralize more CO₂ emissions than they produce. In reaction to the proposal Czech government and business representatives issued statements that refuse the idea of changing the intermediary climate goals. The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic sees the idea as unrealistic. While it agrees that the path to climate neutrality is the correct one, an increase of 15 pp is a drastic one and can’t be met as long as the Czech Republic wants to remain energy self-sufficiency. The Ministry also questioned the process of presenting the new targets. According to the Deputy Prime Minister Karel Havlíček, the Commission should consult Member States representatives first, before presenting such a crucial proposal. T

he same arguments were presented by Czech business organizations. The Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic stresses that any change in agreed targets needs to come with a thorough impact assessment and must reflect current situations in Member States. Also, such a significant increase will necessarily put additional burden on business that are already struggling due to current COVID pandemic and other events, like Brexit. Furthermore, the increase of the emissions’ target goes hand in hand with other targets of increasing energy efficiency and the share of energy coming from renewable sources.

Czech businesses therefore call on the European Commission to thoroughly consult all the relevant stakeholders before setting such an ambitious target as it could significantly jeopardize Czech and European industry.