Lawmakers want fossil fuels banned from EU Recovery Fund

EU lawmakers today called for more of the bloc’s €670 billion recovery fund to be invested in projects that won’t exacerbate climate change or the nature crisis - and for fossil fuels to be banned from the entire fund. The European Parliament’s environment committee voted to raise the amount of green spending from 37% to 47% of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, and to exclude fossil fuel projects from receiving any recovery investments.

Luca Bonaccorsi, sustainable finance director at Transport & Environment (T&E), said: “The Next Generation EU fund is supposed to rebuild an EU economy ravaged by the pandemic, and will be entirely paid by the next generation of taxpayers. It’s only fair that their money is invested in a sustainable economy. MEPs have rightly voted for the blanket exclusion of fossil fuels from the recovery fund, and their colleagues on the economic and budgets committees should follow suit.”

MEPs also voted for spending to be classified as ‘green’ based on the EU’s new sustainable finance law. The Taxonomy Regulation and its technical criteria would replace the current classification, the Rio Markers, which are dated, inadequate and allow massive greenwashing.

Later this month, the parliament’s economics and budgetary committees will have their say on green spending in the recovery plan. T&E said that if the rest of the parliament supports these measures, MEPs could challenge the weak proposals made by national governments and the European Commission.