{"id":4018,"date":"2020-07-06T18:43:08","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T16:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/?p=4018"},"modified":"2020-07-22T10:05:56","modified_gmt":"2020-07-22T08:05:56","slug":"just-transition-fund-must-provide-a-just-green-and-fair-transition-not-line-industry-pockets-greenpeace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/issues\/climate-energy\/4018\/just-transition-fund-must-provide-a-just-green-and-fair-transition-not-line-industry-pockets-greenpeace\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Transition Fund must provide a just, green and fair transition, not line industry pockets \u2014 Greenpeace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brussels \u2013<\/strong> Today the European Parliament Committee on Regional Development (REGI) voted on the Commission’s Just TransToday the European Parliament Committee on Regional Development (REGI) voted on the Commission’s Just Transition Fund proposal, including passing an amendment that allows fossil gas to receive public money under the fund.<\/p>\n\n

The Committee’s members also voted for a budget increase and to open the fund to combating energy poverty \u2013 particularly in social housing, to promoting energy efficiency, and to investment in culture, education and community building.<\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace EU climate campaigner Lorelei Limousin <\/strong>said: \u201cDeclaring a climate emergency while allowing fossil fuels to receive public money meant to support communities is a travesty. Not only does it delay the urgent phase out of polluting energy sources and contribute to the climate emergency itself, it also literally takes public funds meant to support Europeans and puts it in the pockets of the companies that have created the disaster in the first place.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n

The vote follows the decision by EU countries<\/a> to exclude all fossil fuel \u2013 including gas \u2013 and nuclear energy projects from the scope of the Just Transition Fund. <\/p>\n\n

According to the European Commission<\/a>, the purpose of the Just Transition Fund is to “create the necessary investment to help workers and communities which rely on the fossil fuel value chain.”  As part of the Covid-19 recovery package, the European Commission proposed increasing the fund from \u20ac7.5 billion to \u20ac40 billion, with \u20ac30 billion from the EU \u201cNext Generation EU\u201d coronavirus recovery fund and \u20ac10 billion from the EU\u2019s budget for 2021-27. <\/p>\n\n

\"Climbing \u00a9 Greenpeace \/ Dominik Werner<\/div>” class=”wp-image-4022″\/>
Climbing Action against expansion of a gas power plant in Ostro\u0142\u0119ka in Poland
\u00a9 Greenpeace \/ Dominik Werner<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

More than 60 NGOs<\/a> have called on the REGI committee to recognise that fossil gas infrastructure is not compatible with most renewable gases, and almost certainly not  for  renewable  gases  at  scale. The  European  Commission  and  the  International  Energy Agency (IEA) have successively scaled down gas demand projections for 2030.<\/p>\n\n

Environmental groups<\/a> are calling for all access to the fund to be conditional on countries’ committing to climate neutrality and coal phase out dates. Over one million people<\/a> and 100 environmental NGOs across Europe are calling on the European Union to restart its economy by launching the biggest green investment plan the world has ever seen, which would exclude funding of fossil fuels. <\/p>\n\n

A plenary vote on the Just Transition Fund is expected in September. Heads of state and government will meet on 17-18 July to discuss the EU recovery plan. <\/p>\n\n

Contacts<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n

Lorelei Limousin  \u2013 Greenpeace EU climate campaigner <\/strong>: +32 (0)477 79 04 15 lorelei.limousin@greenpeace.org<\/a> <\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace EU press desk<\/strong>: +32 (0)2 274 19 11, pressdesk.eu@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n

For breaking news and comment on EU affairs: www.twitter.com\/GreenpeaceEU<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace. Greenpeace does not accept donations from governments, the EU, businesses or political parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brussels, 6 July 2020 \u2013 Today the European Parliament Committee on Regional Development<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4022,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,29],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-4018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-energy","tag-climatechange","tag-fossilfuels","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4018"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4056,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018\/revisions\/4056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4018"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=4018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}