Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 22 June 2022 - Brussels

Voting time

  Bas Eickhout, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, calm down, calm down. I think the French elections are over last time I checked.

Thank you very much. Every time I hear colleagues talking about ‘reality’ and ‘a realistic approach’, I want to remind you of one thing, and that is the reality outside. The reality outside is that temperature records are being broken on a daily basis almost. Look at the temperatures in Spain and France last week. Look at the flooding in Bangladesh and India. We now have forest fires in Alaska. That is the reality that we have to look at.

That is also why we as a Parliament, already two years ago, called for a climate emergency – because of that reality out there. And that’s also why we have said from the start, yes, this package is ‘Fit for 55’, but this package is not fit for 1.5 degrees – and that we should all acknowledge.

That doesn’t mean that we will not support this package. We as the Green Group will support this package because we know that for now, 55 is where this House wants to be. But let’s see, and let’s also use this as a stepping stone to do more for the climate, because we have to – not only for the climate, also for the new generation, also for the businesses. Everyone is talking about business, but the only way to give certainty to the business is to address climate change wholeheartedly.

And then the last point, and this is why we are happy with the current deal – finally, we have a social climate fund on the table as well, because really the hardest hit by climate are the poorest in our society. There is no climate justice without social justice and that all together brings the Greens on board in this package. But it’s a start. It’s a start to addressing the climate emergency that we declared together. So let’s act on it together.