Europe ready to restart transatlantic climate dialogue after Trump ‘parenthesis’

(EurActiv, 9 Nov 2020) The European Commission and senior EU lawmakers said they stood ready to intensify dialogue with the US on climate change, listing car CO2 limits and green finance among areas where “real transatlantic cooperation” is again possible after the four-year “Trump parenthesis”.

Commission president Ursula von der Leyen issued a statement on Saturday evening to congratulate Joe Biden on his victory in the US presidential election, citing climate change among the priority areas for future cooperation.

“The European Commission stands ready to intensify cooperation with the new Administration and the new Congress” on common pressing challenges such as “fighting the COVID-19 pandemic” and “tackling climate change together,” von der Leyen said.

Manfred Weber, the leader of the European Parliament’s biggest political group, the centre-right EPP, called for restarting the transatlantic relationship, listing climate change and China among the “global challenges that we cannot deal with alone.”

Similar messages were heard from the European Parliament’s other political groups, including the leaders of the socialist and centrist factions.

Among them is Pascal Canfin, the chairman of the Parliament’s powerful environment committee, who said Biden’s victory “is great news for all climate advocates” five years after the signature of the Paris Agreement.

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EurActiv, 9 Nov 2020: Europe ready to restart transatlantic climate dialogue after Trump ‘parenthesis’