2023-10-24 18:46:00
“Life on earth is under siege”: scientists warn about the state of the climate, the Earth enters “unexplored territory”
The problem for the minister is that the expert committee appointed by the government and responsible for giving an opinion on this text says the same thing as Jean-Luc Crucke. “The Government is currently legally required to set annual global and sectoral emissions trajectories by 2037, for the entire Walloon economy, in line with the 2050 objective of the 2014 climate decree. The new envisaged legal framework removes this obligation,” indicate the experts. These same experts conclude that completely abandoning the mechanism “increases the risk that Wallonia will not achieve its climate objectives”.
A shame for Jean-Luc Crucke. “It’s disappointing,” he exclaims. I thought that with green ministers in the government, important decisions like these would be taken.” However, he also knows that Ecolo does not sit alone in the government and that this decree is the result of a negotiation between the Greens, the PS and the MR. “Yes and I know very well how a government works. But Minister Henry had a duty to follow the general interest and impose his vision.”
A legal text
During the night from Monday to Tuesday, in Parliament, Philippe Henry replied that it was logical that the new decree did not contain concrete reduction measures, these having been integrated into the new Air Climate Energy Plan (PACE) recently adopted by the Walloon executive. “PACE is just a roadmap, it is not a legal tool with a binding value,” replies MP Les Engagés. So it has no value. I don’t understand Minister Ecolo. He had the opportunity to set these quotas in a legal text, but he did not do so. It is a failed and unambitious decree.”
And the charge continues. “On Monday, we learned that Philippe Henry’s Brussels counterpart, Alain Maron, also an ecologist, was referring the question of Belgian climate policy to Codeco (Consultation Committee, Editor’s note). They are three green ministers (Zakia Khattabi for the federal government, Alain Maron for Brussels and Philippe Henry for Wallonia, Editor’s note) and an N-VA minister (Zuhal Demir for Flanders, Editor’s note) and they are not able to get along . If agreements could be concluded at Codeco this would be known,” scoffs Crucke, who wants “the Minister-Presidents and the Prime Minister to take up this issue by relinquishing their Climate Ministers”. “Otherwise Belgium is heading for disaster.”
Does the new decree put Wallonia on the path to climate neutrality? The committee of climate experts displays its reservations…
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