Centre and conservative parties in the European Parliament have failed to treat climate change with the urgency needed, a new ranking from Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe has revealed.
After assessing MEPs in relation to climate and energy issues, only the European Free Alliance, the European United Left/Nordic Green Left and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) scored “good“ for climate action.
Two groups were labelled “delayers“ for supporting climate action but failing to act with the required urgency. These were the Europe for Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).
And three groups scored “badly“ or “very badly“, which were the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF), the European People's Party (EPP), and the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR).
“In the last five years conservative and centre parties in the European Parliament have not done enough to stand up for European citizens and protect them from the climate crisis,“ CAN Europe director, Wendel Trio, said.
“They need to listen to millions of European voters demanding that politicians do more to fight climate change, make climate their top priority in the elections campaign, and commit to take concrete steps after the elections.“
Despite this, the research shows that some parties in centrist and conservative groups are playing a positive role in climate policy, and that a broad alliance is possible in the next parliament.
The ALDE group's Portuguese Democratic Republican Party, Croatian Istrian Democratic Assembly and Belgian Reformist Movement all scored reasonably well for climate action.
While the Portuguese Earth Party, Finnish National Coalition Party and the Belgian Humanist Democratic Centre all advocate for more climate action in the EPP.
“Several conservative and liberal politicians in the current Parliament take the challenge of climate change seriously and support more climate action,“ Trio continued.
“We need more of them in the next European Parliament to build a broad alliance of MEPs across the political spectrum fighting for a cleaner, safer and more prosperous Europe.“
