Discover Top Posts Tagged with #rightwards shift

Observers shocked at scale and speed of deregulation drive they say is watering down European Green Deal and laws

The European Union’s rollback of environment policy is gaining momentum, campaigners have warned, in a deregulation drive that has shocked observers with its scale and speed. EU policymakers have dealt several critical blows to their much-vaunted European Green Deal since the end of 2023, when opinion polls suggested a significant rightward shift before the 2024 parliamentary elections. Environment groups say the pace has picked up under the competition-focused agenda of the new European Commission. The most striking examples are the “omnibus” packages that water down sustainable finance rules, some of which have been put on hold even before they came into force, and which member states proposed diluting further on Monday. The European Commission has promised more simplification measures to “radically lighten the regulatory load” on people and businesses. In the first six months of the new European Commission mandate, the EU also delayed a law to stop deforestation in supply chains by one year, gave carmakers two extra years to meet pollution targets and downgraded the protection status of the wolf. Environmental NGOs have found themselves in the crosshairs of a funding freeze they argue undermines democracy. The political tensions reached a high this week after an anti-greenwashing law was seemingly killed in the final stages of negotiations. The warnings of green backsliding come amid a global slump in efforts to cut pollution. In the UK, the government has faced growing political resistance to its target to hit net zero by 2050. In the US, Donald Trump has begun his second term with a series of attacks on environment agencies and policies as he seeks to promote fossil fuels. “DRILL, BABY, DRILL!!!” he told the US Department of Energy in a social media post on Monday. “And I mean NOW!!! Green groups say similar – albeit less sensational – shifts are under way in Brussels, which boasts some of the most ambitious rules to clean up a polluting economy.

#eu #eu politics #rightwards shift #environmental deregulation #climate crisis #environment #health

The vote, repudiating even a nominal commitment to address climate change, underscores the long-term rout of a “moderate” faction within the

...faction within the conservative party. At a party room meeting on Wednesday, the Liberal Party voted to ditch their nominal commitment to reduce carbon emissions to “net zero” by 2050. The next day, Liberal leader Sussan Ley publicly announced the policy change. The shift goes far beyond the intrinsic significance of the policy itself. The climate targets of all of the major parties are a sham, which they willfully violate, including the current federal Labor government, under which emissions are increasing. Of greater significance is the fact that the change marks a further shift to the right by the Liberals, under conditions where they are facing an existential crisis. The immediate impulse was provided by the Liberal’s Coalition partner, the National Party, a regional and rural-based party. They preempted any Liberal decision by announcing a fortnight ago that they were dispensing with “net zero.” That declaration posed a question mark over the future of the Coalition, if the Liberals were to maintain “net zero.” It was clearly aimed at strengthening the hand of right-wing factions within the Liberal Party, some of whose representatives, such as Jacinta Price and Andrew Hastie have openly undermined Ley’s leadership and called for the party to adopt a more Trumpian program. The context is the Liberal debacle in the May 2025 election. The party received its lowest vote since it was founded in 1944. An urban party, it was all but wiped out in the major cities, holding just 9 out of 88 metropolitan seats, deepening a tendency that had been apparent in the previous two elections.

Conservative parties all over the west are dropping net zero policies, which is why we'll fly past the 2.6C recent reports say we're heading towards.

#australia #australian politics #liberal party #rightwards shift #net zero policies #abandoned #climate crisis

Conservative Bart De Wever was sworn in Monday as Belgium's new prime minister, after striking a hard-fought coalition deal that moves the c

Conservative Bart De Wever was sworn in Monday as Belgium's new prime minister, after striking a hard-fought coalition deal that moves the country to the right. Struck late Friday after seven months of tortuous negotiations, the agreement makes De Wever the first nationalist from Dutch-speaking Flanders to be named Belgian premier. A law-and-order candidate whose coalition has already promised to crack down on irregular migration, De Wever's rise to power reinforces a marked right-wing shift in European politics. The 54-year-old, who in recent years has backed off on calls for Flanders to become an independent country, took the oath of office before King Philippe, in a ceremony at the royal palace in Brussels. From there, he is to head straight to a gathering of EU leaders a few blocks away, for talks on defence and transatlantic relations.

#begium #belgian pol #new pm #rightwards shift

The European Green Deal is “an agenda of economic modernisation” rather than an ecological agenda, said the head of the European Commission’

The European Green Deal is “an agenda of economic modernisation” rather than an ecological agenda, said the head of the European Commission’s climate department at a recent Euractiv event. Industry and competitiveness will gain greater prominence in the bloc’s future climate and energy policies. Industrial policy is set to be at the heart of the EU’s energy and climate policies in the upcoming policy mandate, as results at the European Parliament elections on June 6-9 confirmed a shift towards the right and a stronger push for competitiveness in the bloc’s economic sectors. This adaptation in the EU executive narrative was made clear at a Euractiv event on the future of the EU’s climate policy at the end of May, where the head of the European Commission’s climate department signalled that the European Green Deal is “no longer an ecologic agenda.” “We should really make it clear that we’re not doing this for the planet: the planet couldn’t care less whether it warms up,” said Kurt Vandenberghe, director-general at the Commission’s climate department (DG CLIMA). “What really matters is how to make the planet livable for people and to keep our civilization and our economic standards. And so we’re doing this for people, not for the planet,” he added.

A liveable planet is not compatible with our civilisation and economic standards. That's why we're in this shit in the first place. This is another example of right-wingers dumping green policies because "they're hurting the ordinary man," i.e. kicking the can down the road when it'll be much more expensive to fix.

#belgium #eu commission #eu pol #rightwards shift #economy over green issues #economy #environment