The European industry and research organizations RECHARGE, EASE, AVERE, Cycling Industries Europe, EMIRI and BATTERY 2030+ on Friday published a joint statement calling upon policymakers at European and national scale to continue to demonstrate their climate leadership ambitions amid the global Covid-19 crisis.
As governments announce recovery packages to counter the abrupt economic slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, they should not lose sight of the relevance of fighting climate change and the crisis potential linked to failing to do so, they said. “Right now, all efforts must be focused on delivering immediate help to relieve our exhausted health and social-welfare systems and to ensure that those who are at imminent risk receive the emergency help they need”, the associations said.
“The long-term stimulus packages for the relaunch of our economy, however, hold an unprecedented opportunity for the European Union to foster its climate leadership ambitions and to further invest in the infrastructure of a future-ready economy”, Claude Chanson, General Manager at RECHARGE added. Patrick Clerens, Secretary General of EASE highlighted that “investments in companies, products and services supporting climate-friendly activities will trigger the much-needed economic growth”.
Together, the associations represent the entire value chain of the advanced energy storage and electrification sectors relevant for the achievement of the EU’s climate-neutrality, industrial leadership and technological advancements targets. “We urge policymakers and partners in the industry to hold on to their CO2 reduction and circular economy objectives. The post-Covid period should not be the time to move backwards but to further strengthen our commitments to a sustainable and environmentally-friendly society”, they said.
Philippe Vangeel, Secretary General AVERE, said: “The Coronavirus crisis does not mean we can drop our goals for a sustainable future. We hope this current crisis will be over as soon as possible, but climate change is still going to be there and impact us. This means that we need to stay the course and develop and implement solutions that let us curb our emissions: electromobility leading to zeroemissions transport is surely one of them”.
Philippe Jacques, Managing Director at EMIRI, added: “Our governments have the unique opportunity to adopt economic recovery packages that can dramatically boost the deployment of clean and sustainable technologies for low-carbon energy and mobility solutions, too”.