The Committees on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), on Foreign Affairs (AFET), on Development (DEVE) hold a joint public hearing with Mr Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action. HOEKSTRA has been named by the Dutch Government to substitute the former Executive Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the file on Climate Action, Frans TIMMERMANS, who will run for the National elections in his country. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

statement

Strasbourg

public hearing

hearing of Commissioners

hearing of Wopke HOEKSTRA 2023 (T)

Wopke HOEKSTRA (NL)

Hearing of Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action: opening statement by Wopke HOEKSTRA

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, It's a great honour to appear before this Committee. First of all, I'd like to thank you for your leadership on the Green Deal. Thanks to your work, Europe is making very tangible progress on the Green transition. If you place your trust in me, I would like to continue that legacy. I would like to bring continuity. I want to thank you for all opportunities to increase our ambition and I will reach out to everybody.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, We need to work together, closely, to ensure that this transition is a success. Since I was a child, my parents and my grandparents taught me just how important and incredibly important European cooperation is. It brought us solidarity, peace, security and prosperity. I'm a child of Europe. Wherever I go in Europe, I feel at home. I've had the privilege of living in Italy, in France and in Germany, and of working all over our continent.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, I have a huge amount of admiration for our Union, for its freedoms, values, culture, heritage and our solidarity. Our solidarity. And if my nomination is confirmed, I will defend the interests of all European citizens wholeheartedly and independently.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, In recent years, we faced many challenges financial crises, the pandemic and Russia's horrible war against Ukraine. And as Minister, I worked closely with colleagues all over Europe on the Capital Markets Union, onshore weapons for Ukraine. And I've always tried to bring the national and European interests together.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, And yes, I do want to acknowledge that precisely this did not always go well at the start of the pandemic. I showed insufficient regard for the difficulties faced by some Member States and I would like you to know that I feel that I should have done that differently.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, Now again on climate change, it is time to show solidarity in the EU, across the world and with future generations. Climate change is a massive challenge and our future depends on our decisions. Honourable members, as Commissioner, I will be driven by facts, by numbers, by science, and I will be convinced by evidence.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, But I will also be adamant in giving a voice to the next generation, like from any of you, this is not an abstract reality for me. At least once a week, my children ask me about two things: the war in Ukraine and climate change. These kids are sitting at my kitchen table at yours. Well, frankly speaking, anywhere else in the world, they deserve a future.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, Honourable members, as commissioner, I would aim for continuity, for ambition and for outreach. And this Parliament has been pivotal in setting out setting our continent firmly on track towards climate neutrality in 2050. The EU Climate law and Fit for 55 simply know no parallel with the European Green Deal.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, President von der Leyen and former Executive Vice-President Timmermans laid the foundations for Europe's green transformation. And I want to assure you that continuity is in place on the entire Green Deal. In my own portfolio, I aim to swiftly conclude all pending negotiations. But I will not be a caretaker. It simply wouldn't do justice to the scale, to the magnitude of our challenge. Frankly speaking, it is also not in my nature. We're running a marathon, not a sprint.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, Through climate portfolio, I want to prepare the foundations of a Green Deal 2.0 on climate, biodiversity, circularity and pollution and help increase ambitions across the board. And to build this ball and to profit from it. Europe needs ambition and predictability.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, As the members in the first quarter of next year, we will present our communication on the 2040 target and the Scientific Advisory Board has already published compelling evidence with recommendations on technological feasibility removals, environmental risk limits, international cooperation and fairness.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, The board advises a minimum target of 90% net reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. And actually, we will do a thorough impact assessment and analyse different scenarios reduction pathways, costs and benefits. And I cannot pre-empt this work nor the final Polish decision.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, But I can offer you my clear commitment. I will act in line with the board's advice. I will use all instruments available to aim to enable the EU to reach the minimum recommended target of 90% and reductions. And I will work to bring our industry along with instruments like the Innovation Fund to innovation and using C-band to help create a truly global level playing field.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, Honourable members, climate change is truly a global crisis. We cannot master this alone. At COP22, discussions will centre on ambition and finance. And of course both are closely linked. The more money we can muster, the more ambition we can elicit. We fit for 55, europe leads the world in ambition and implementation and by providing the largest share, the largest share of climate finance, we lead the world in solidarity.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, But the harsh reality is that the pair's goals are far from fulfilled. And to unlock more mitigation ambition, notably from major emitters. We need progress on adaptation and finance, of course, including loss and damage. This is in the end not only about money, but about restoring trust.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, And you as created a breakthrough last year, we can do this again. If we look at unorthodox solutions and there to flip the script. COP 28 should be about operationalise the loss and damage fund and funding arrangements, especially for the most vulnerable.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, It is doable if we find agreement on the governance and the operating rules. And if this is the case, first lunches will become possible and I will prepare the ground accordingly. But for structural funding, we need systematic revenue- ideas from the summit of the new Global Financing pact last June simply must become a reality and I will talk to all partners to build a Global Loss and Damage coalition.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, I want to explore a maritime levy, a fossil fuels tax, and even a share of its proceeds. No stone should be left unturned. And still we cannot leave Dubai without more mitigation ambition, if only because no amount of money can actually pay if the damage will be there and if we overshoot Paris.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, On ambition, you should simply lead by example. And we fit for 55. We're set to reduce 57% of emissions by 2030, and we must spur additional ambition abroad. I will champion the use push to triple global renewable energy capacity, double energy efficiency, and phase out unabated fossil fuels.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, Fossil fuels must become history. The sooner the better. And the fact that certain oil majors have long known of their role in climate change and sought to ignore the evidence, I find it truly unethical. And if anything, it increases, in my view, their responsibility to contribute to solving climate change. And we should engage with them exactly along these lines.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, I want to be honest. The geopolitical situation we're facing is grim. It will not improve soon, and it waits when our climates, diplomacy and the effectiveness of our climate ambition. But public expectations for COP 28 are high, and rightly soon. And time is running out. We must get the world on track for one and a half degrees. I still see avenues to success in Dubai. And I will work non-stop, I will work non-stop to make it happen. Ziggy had a dominant hand.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, Honourable members, we need we definitely need further measures in two areas aviation and fossil fuel subsidies. I'm aware that the negotiations on the emissions trading system for aviation and CORSIA and sustainable fuels have only just been concluded. But yet we need more efforts to halt pollution and aviation emissions in a sustainable manner.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, . And let's start with, in my view, the biggest absurdity of all the lack of taxation on aviation fuel. When I drive my car to a petrol station, 50 to 60% of what I pay is taxes. But when a jet is refuelled, there is no tax rate. Zero.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, What European thinks that makes sense, that, of all things, kerosene is not dealt with based on the polluter pays principle. When I was Finance Minister, the Netherlands therefore pushed for a European aviation tax. Today, I would like to drum up support across the world for a global aviation levy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, What's more, we need to finally end the subsidies for fossil fuels that, in my view, anachronistic and a counterproductive energy transition. Therefore, I would like to work closely with Commissioner Gentiloni in order to advance the Energy Taxation Directive in the Council. But I know all too well how difficult it can be to change tax policy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, But did Italy in the G20 presidency not show with the global minimum tax rate that it can be done? Climate policy is closely linked to the other pillars of the Green Deal. This applies to biodiversity, especially the Nature Restoration Law, the soil Law, and the upcoming Forest Monitoring Law. In order to achieve our climate goals, we need to complete the Green Deal.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, Our soils, oceans and forests are the biggest carbon sinks. A healthy natural environment will keep us cool on an increasingly warm planet. I support Commissioner Šefčovič just fully in his task of getting the ambitious environmental laws over the finish line.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, And I promise in my climate portfolio to contribute to that. Above all, we need to work closely with our farmers and foresters. They need to be helped to produce sustainably and they are entitled to a decent living. Therefore, we need to offer our farmers a revised business model to this end, I will consciously seek dialogue with the food industry and with banks.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, Honourable members. Europe's Green Transition is a massive task. It needs the broadest possible support to maintain ambition and to take everyone along. And I will set my own bar high for reaching out, for building coalitions, and for working together. I will work with you, with my colleagues in the Commission, with the Council, with European citizens, civil Society and business, and with our partners across the globe.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, Honourable members. Mr. President, I hope that I've shown you that as a Commissioner, my focus would be on continuity, on ambition and an outreach that will be guided by science and always be the voice of the next generation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner-designate for Climate Action, Reaching climate neutrality in Europe by 2050 will be a steep climb and convincing our partners across the world to keep pace with us. Well, frankly speaking, the even harder. But there's no alternative. And we can get it done together. Thank you.