Would-be EU climate chief wins lawmakers' committee backing

The European Parliament's environment committee backed former Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra as the EU's next head of climate change policy on Wednesday, after lawmakers squeezed out extra promises from him to strengthen green measures.

The European Parliament's environment committee backed former Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra as the EU's next head of climate change policy on Wednesday, after lawmakers squeezed out extra promises from him to strengthen green measures. Hoekstra and Maros Sefcovic, who is the nominee to lead overall coordination of European Union green policies, both secured approval from lawmakers representing at least two-thirds of the committee, committee chair Pascal Canfin said in a post on X.

Each had failed to pass a parliamentary hearing earlier this week, but won over lawmakers after Hoekstra made extra pledges, including to publish data about fossil fuel subsidies and to take a firmer line at UN talks on phasing fossil fuels out. The candidates still need formal approval from a majority of the full EU Parliament - in a vote on Thursday that some lawmakers said is likely to pass, given the committee's backing.

Hoekstra had laid out his plans for the job on Monday - pledging to stand firmly by the EU's climate targets amid political pushback, and try to ensure the bloc sets a target to slash its net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 90% by 2040. When those promises failed to convince lawmakers, he added more. In a document shared with lawmakers on Wednesday, seen by Reuters, Hoekstra said he would publicly disclose how much EU money is spent on fossil fuel subsidies, as a first step towards phasing them out.

He also said he would push at the UN's COP28 climate summit in November for a phase out of all fossil fuels. That would put Europe at odds with oil-and-gas-producing nations that want to use technologies to "abate" - meaning capture - the emissions from burning fossil fuels, rather than ending the use of the fuels themselves.

"The Commission will argue for dropping or limiting the reference to unabated fossil fuels," Hoeksta said in the document.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)