In 2023 we saw the ugly face of the climate crisis in Europe: from the EU’s largest ever recorded forest fire in Greece, the landslide disaster in Georgia, to massive rains causing havoc in Slovenia, Norway, and Sweden. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continued, heightening the sense of horror and insecurity throughout Europe while also impacting living costs – in particular the cost of energy and food. We witnessed harrowing violence in Gaza and Israel. We demand an immediate ceasefire, an end to the occupation and a fair, just, and lasting solution for the Palestinian people.
Our hearts are broken. We want to build a peaceful, just, and sustainable world based on societies living in harmony with each other and with nature. We might be dreamers, but visionaries are badly needed in this decade that needs urgent climate action, and where international cooperation and solidarity is essential to implement such action. It is badly needed when many of our political leaders are driving in a very dangerous direction.
Politically in Europe, 2023 was a year of backlash against environmental and climate ambitions. With the European Parliament elections coming up in June 2024, European political actors on the right, hand-in-hand with corporate interests, started their election campaigning early by instrumentalising environmental and climate legislation for populist gains. Despite significant resistance, we witnessed very worrying push-backs on pesticides, on corporate due diligence, and on nature restoration.
However, as environmental justice activists, we are not giving in to despair and pessimism. It is our job to look for solutions, show the way forward, and create sparks of hope. In spite of the challenging context, we in 2023 achieved major milestones through campaigning and mobilising for social and environmental justice:
- We have been demanding a ban on disconnections as a key step toward tackling Europe’s energy poverty crisis– and achieved an important win as it was included in the Electricity Market Redesign.
- Our work on questioning the systematic economic growth dependency took a big jump with the European Parliament Beyond Growth Conference. As a testament to our work, Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said at the conference: “GDP measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile. Economic growth is not an end in itself.” – a significant shift in narrative coming from the innermost workings of the European institutions.
- We have been campaigning for years for the EU and member states to leave the climate-wrecking Energy Charter Treaty. In 2023 several Member States announced they were leaving the ECT, and the Commission proposed a collective EU withdrawal.
- We continued campaigning against the EU-Mercosur trade deal, emphasising its harmful impacts on the environment, local communities, human rights, and democratic processes, and contributed to secure a delay in the ratification of the deal.
In 2024, more voters than ever in history will cast their votes in national elections, the results of which will be consequential for years to come. Polls are indicating that many countries will vote for a shift towards more conservative political leaders. The European Parliament elections will kick off a new political cycle of the European Union, and the burning question is whether the European Green Deal will be shelved, or whether environmental policies will become more ambitious and socially just.
Now is absolutely not the time to slow down the EU’s ambition for the environment and the climate, as some propose. At Friends of the Earth Europe we will, jointly with our members across Europe, our partners and allies, continue defending and championing the interests of people and planet with passion, boldness and expertise – as we have for decades. Now, more than ever, we have to show how environmental and social justice go hand-in-hand, and deliver sustainable and just solutions for the benefit of everyone.
