EU climate lead at risk as Timmermans may depart to run for Dutch PM
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LONDON (Callaway Climate Insights) — Climate shocker in Europe earlier today after EU climate envoy Frans Timmermans said he plans to run for prime minister in his home country, the Netherlands, whose government just collapsed.
Timmermans, the architect of Europe’s Green New Deal, and a polarizing figure in EU politics, has applied to be a candidate for the Socialist-Green ticket. While the ticket has not yet accepted him, if it did, he would likely have to resign from the EU.
Timmermans’ potential departure would roil geopolitical climate leadership just as it faces one of its biggest tests yet this November at the United Nations COP28 climate summit in Dubai, which is being hosted by an oil executive and is sinking in controversy. Aside from Timmermans, the other two global climate leaders, John Kerry of the U.S. and Xie Zhenhua of China, only just started talking again this week after months of political standoff.
Without strong leadership from Europe, the U.S., and China, global climate cooperation could disintegrate just as the effects of climate change are starting to bite around the globe this summer. Word is that Kerry might leave the Biden Administration after next year’s presidential election. If Timmermans leaves, even if he becomes Dutch Prime Minister, political leadership will be at its lowest point since before the Paris Agreement of 2015.
And if he does leave, the EU will need to rapidly appoint a successor. A more important appointment could not be imagined. Watch this space.
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Words to live by . . . .
“The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.” — E. O. Wilson, American biologist.