BRUSSELS — The European Union must respond to the war-driven spike in fossil fuel prices by doubling down on the fight against climate change, a top Dutch official told POLITICO.
As the European Commission prepares to unveil new policies aimed at cutting the bloc’s planet-warming emissions by 2040, Dutch Climate Minister Stientje van Veldhoven said, Brussels should “stay the course” on its climate laws and eschew extensive use of carbon offsets — credits that allow countries to compensate for their own pollution by paying for cuts in emissions elsewhere.
With the war in Iran driving up energy prices, “I think we have every argument, every reason to make sure that we become less dependent on fossil fuels,” she said in an interview just after returning from Colombia, where the Netherlands co-hosted an international summit to transition away from oil, coal and gas last week.
“The current energy crisis does show us that we have a choice to make. To what extent do we want to remain vulnerable to political choices made elsewhere in the world that have a huge impact on our socioeconomic structure?” she added. “We have a choice whether we want to invest in making ourselves independent of this kind of dynamic, and that means investing in the transition.”
