16 September 2020 – Commenting on a vote by the European Parliament to include fossil gas projects as recipients of public money from the EU’s Just Transition Fund, Murray Worthy, Gas Campaign Leader at Global Witness, said:
“The EU’s Just Transition Fund is specifically designed to support countries to move to zero carbon economies. Allowing fossil gas projects to receive this public money completely undermines that goal. It should be glaringly obvious but you can’t tackle the climate crisis by pumping money into fossil fuels. We hope that the European Commission and Member States will reject the inclusion of fossil gas at future talks.”
The EU’s Just Transition Fund is a key part of the EU Green Deal and the European Commission, as well as a number of member states, have previously ruled out the inclusion of any fossil fuels. A group of Members of the European Parliament had sought to include fossil gas as an amendment to Parliament’s position on the Just Transition Fund.
Global Witness, alongside 63 other organisations, signed an open letter to MEPs calling on them to reject fossil gas in this deal.
/ ENDS
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