The Commission’s new guidelines for a just transition towards climate neutrality call on Member States to take action. People must be at the centre of environmental change – nobody shall be left behind. Early March 2022, the European Trade Union Institute organised an event focussing on the question what challenges the EU is facing in order to make the eco-social paradigm change a global success.

An increasing number of Austrian households are putting emphasis on sustainable consumption. However, a recent AK study shows that in reality consumers encounter problems again and again. Making sustainable consumption suitable for daily use, requires improved framework conditions – both at national and EU level.

How do we want to reach the pathway towards a digital and climate neutral Europe? The European Commission is currently asking this question in a broad consultation  to cooperatively determine the pathway for Europe’s future as the first climate neutral continent.

To achieve climate neutrality by 2050 changes in the European industrial sector, especially for energy-intensive industries, are necessary. Industrial policy needs to be strategic and mission-focused in order to enable and shape the necessary transition – including an active engagement of civil society and trade unions. This policy brief describes pathways for a well-coordinated interaction of European, national, and regional initiatives for the purpose of providing targeted support to particularly vulnerable regions, enterprises, and employees.

On 13 January 2022, EU Commissioner Hahn answered questions on the new own resources package, which the Commission had presented on 22 December 2021. Three new sources of revenues for own resources have been planned for the EU budget: revenues of emissions trading, of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and of taxing multinational corporation’s profits. From 2023-2030, these new sources of revenues shall generate on average up to 13.5 billion Euro per year for the EU budget.

Just before the start of the new year, the EU Commission took a far-reaching decision: within the scope of the Taxonomy Regulation, fossil gas and nuclear energy are to be classified as green investments. Whilst the majority of EU countries welcomes this delegated act, Austria positions itself at the forefront of opponents and even threatens to sue. However, it is unlikely that the Council will block the Commission’s initiative.

Shortly before the end of 2021, the Commission presented a number of new legislative proposals to continue implementing the Green Deal as its key issue. Particularly important measures of this latest package concern the decarbonisation of the building stock, the decarbonisation of the gas market as well as increasing transport efficiency.

The Commission’s “Fit for 55” Package proposes concrete measures by which EU greenhouse gas emissions shall be reduced by 55 % by 2030 compared to 1990 and by which subsequently the EU becomes climate neutral by 2050. AK has scrutinised the Package and compiled four Position Papers. AK generally supports the ambitious European climate policy, however, it clearly opposes the introduction of trading CO2 emissions in respect of space heating.

AK supports the new, ambitious targets for the expansion of renewable energy sources by 2030. These targets should also be binding at Member State level since the necessary expansion of renewable energy sources by 2030 will be difficult to achieve without binding targets at all levels.
 

AK supports the new ambitious energy efficiency targets to be met by 2030 but calls for them to be binding at Member States level as well. With the proposed inclusion of the “energy efficiency first” principle in the legislation, energy efficiency could finally achieve a breakthrough. However, AK strongly opposes the proposed possibility for Member States to continue to exclude the sales of energy used in the transport sector from the final energy consumption calculation.