Member of the European Parliament Ondřej Knotek, who recently called for the EU to abandon its 2040 climate target, is now in charge of leading negotiations on the new goal.
A spokesperson for the far-right Patriots for Europe group confirmed that Knotek would be in charge of the file, after the group outbid centrist groups for the role.
Knotek previously said the EU needed a law to address the impact of climate change. But he has savagely criticized the Green Deal, calling it “ridiculous,” and arguing the policy was “damaging industry” without actually stopping the “floods and fires.”
He has also frequently raised concerns about the outsized impact the clean energy shift will have on his home country of Czechia, which still uses coal power and is poorer than other EU countries.
