Brussels/Strasbourg – Greenpeace has warned that the EU is in a dire state when it comes to protecting people from environmental destruction, as EU Commission President von der Leyen gave her annual ‘State of the European Union’ speech in Strasbourg.
Despite trumpeting her green credentials, President von der Leyen has presided over the continued funding of factory farming and investments in fossil fuels, while these destroy the planet’s life-support systems, Greenpeace said.
Greenpeace EU director Jorgo Riss said: “Much of our continent has suffered through the summer either on fire or flooded, or both, and von der Leyen’s politics condemn us to more of the same. She has no plan to end fossil fuels or industrial farming – the two biggest threats to the planet’s life-support systems. For all that she talks about security, von der Leyen has missed countless opportunities to make Europe more secure in the face of climate breakdown. For all that she talks about protecting farmers, she is more concerned with attacking wolves than tackling the factory farms that are really devouring them.”
A group of activists from Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth Europe and Climate Action Network Europe protested outside the European Parliament ahead of President von der Leyen’s speech, condemning the EU’s sluggish action on climate and nature protection. Photos from that protest are free to use here.
The European Union still has no phase-out date for fossil gas, a major source of climate pollution that President von der Leyen’s Commission has labelled as ‘sustainable’ under the EU’s investment taxonomy. In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the related energy crisis, the European Commission has focused on new suppliers for fossil fuels rather than cutting energy waste and aiming for 100% renewable energy. In particular, new investments in liquified fossil gas infrastructure threaten to keep the continent hooked on expensive and dirty fuels.
The number of farms in the EU has dropped by 5.3 million since 2005, as more farm animals are concentrated on larger industrial farms. Despite this disappearance of family farms, the EU’s common agricultural policy gives the majority of its budget to farms producing livestock and animal feed – a significant driver of nature destruction and global heating.
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Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace. We do not accept donations from governments, the EU, businesses or political parties. Greenpeace has over three million supporters, and 26 independent national and regional organisations with offices in more than 55 countries.
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