EU wants everyone to pay the cost of going green

There is a complex new system of carbon levies. There is a climate law that will mandate zero net emissions by 2050. And billions of euros are being sunk into battery plants, petrol cars are set to be phased out, and train lines will be laid down to get us all out of the planes. No one could fault the European Union’s ambition when it comes to fighting climate change. Like governments around the world, it has plans, strategies and targets for every occasion.

But on closer inspection, it turns out there is one group that is exempt from the fight to slow down global warming. The very rich. And indeed EU officials themselves. A series of exemptions means they will have to change their lifestyles very little, and far less than the poor and moderately well-off. That is neither fair nor reasonable – and all it will do is create a backlash that makes reducing carbon emissions impossible.

No one would question Europe’s rhetoric on climate change. Announcing the slightly oddly titled “Fit for 55” programme – which sounds suspiciously like an aerobics class for the, er, more senior members of your local gym – in the summer, the Ursula von der Leyen, the Commission’s president, grandly proclaimed that Europe would become the “world’s first carbon-neutral continent” by 2050. Along the way, emissions would be cut by 55pc by the end of this decade.

Like how? The EU has put in place a fiendishly complex carbon trading system that will tax imported as well as domestic emissions (and, incidentally, is so unworkable, and will hit domestic industry so hard, it is probably the spark for the next eurozone crisis, but that is a story for another day). Petrol cars will be phased out by 2035.

Funds dished out to member states through the €750bn (£542bn) Coronavirus Rescue Fund are explicitly tied to green technologies. And a climate law will mandate tough environmental targets for member states. The list goes on and on. The ambition is certainly there, and on paper at least it looks convincing enough.

Here’s the problem, however. The rules don’t seem to be quite so strict for a privileged few. Roberto Cingolani, Italy’s minister for ecological transition, argued last week that there should be an exemption from the ban on petrol vehicles for “supercars”, such as those made by Ferrari and Lamborghini. The argument, according to Cingolani, who funnily enough just happens to also be a former non-executive director of Ferrari, is that the number of supercars is so small that it doesn’t make much difference to the climate either way. The EU has not given into Italy’s demands yet, but it is probably only a matter or time.

It doesn’t stop there. The EU is also planning to exempt private jets from its planned tax on aviation fuel. Probably rightly, the existing exemption for jet fuel is set to be ended – after all, it makes flying significantly cheaper than other forms of transport despite its carbon footprint. But it turns out that private jets won’t have to pay the tax because they will be classified as an “aid to the conduct of business”.

Oh, and just in case all those Gulfstreams and Cessnas are not always strictly heading for work meetings, there is another exemption for “personal and recreational” flights.

Of course, on one level the Commission may have a point. There are not enough supercars in the world to make much difference. Likewise, compared with all the fleets of 737s and A320s whizzing around Europe, the private jets are probably not the most crucial problem.

Even so, some of the statistics are, to put it mildly, alarming. Lamborghini’s flagship Aventador model – a snip at £270,000 – only manages around 16 miles per gallon, and that’s with only two seats, which does seem a little high on the juice. Up in the air, it is not much better, with one estimate showing that the emissions from private jets have risen by 31pc between 2005 and 2019. Some of that of course will have come from the EU itself: the website Politico recently reported that the Commission had this year slipped a 30pc increase in spending on private jets for its own staff.

There are many different words that could be used to describe the EU’s approach to climate change. But hypocrisy would be a good one to settle on. Ironically, as it announced the latest green deal, the EU also pledged that it would be “a socially fair transition”. There is not much sign of that.

We can debate whether we need such strict net-zero targets in the first place. Perhaps we do, or perhaps the acceleration of technologies such as electric cars and renewable energies will be enough to take care of the issue without such sweeping changes in the way we all live. It is perfectly reasonable to argue about that.

But if we are going to set ambitious targets, then we need to make sure the burden and costs of the transition are equally shared between all sections of society, and that is true of the EU, but also of governments in the UK, the US and elsewhere. If anything, instead of exemptions for supercars and private jets, they should face the stiffest rise in taxes. After all, very few of us will notice because we can’t afford them anyway. If we don’t make sure everyone pays, then cutting carbon emissions will simply create a backlash, and rightly so.

If we are committed to fighting climate change, everyone has to be part of that. Leaving it just to the little people isn’t going to work.