BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union will not dilute its efforts to fight climate change, but needs to improve its communication with industries worried about the cost of CO2-cutting policies, the European Commission’s new green policy chief said on Tuesday.
“We are not going to dilute our ambition,” European Commission Executive Vice-President Maros Sefcovic said in a joint media interview on Tuesday in Brussels.
The EU has faced pushback on green policies from some member countries and EU lawmaker groups in recent months. Poland is taking Brussels to court over climate policies Warsaw says would worsen social inequality, while centre-right EU lawmakers have campaigned to kill off a new EU law to protect nature.
“What I believe is that we need to improve our communication and to be able to come faster, earlier and be more precise in our reactions to some of the natural worries which are there in some sectors,” Sefcovic added.
Sefcovic took over overall coordination of EU climate and environmental policies last week, when his predecessor Frans Timmermans stepped down to run in Dutch elections.
(Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten)
