Mounting scientific warnings with reports from the European Environment Agency, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank are highlight the devastating effects of the continued rise in our CO₂ emissions and hence the urgency to stop  subsidising fossil fuels. Indeed, it is the entire biosphere, the ecosystems on which the global economy and our lives depend, that are threatened by climate breakdown and the increase in extreme weather events.

In this context, the scientific consensus calls for a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels. Yet on November 13, during the COP30, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers could endorse two major rollbacks and deliver a potentially fatal blow to the Green Deal.

“Omnibus I” the weapon of mass destruction for a responsible European economy

The European Parliament could unravel European legislation on corporate due diligence through the “Omnibus I” directive, weakening the obligation for large companies operating in the European market to respect human rights and the environment throughout their value chains and to implement transition plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

While unfair competition is being imposed on European companies by multinationals that base their business models on human rights abuses, environmental destruction and denial of the climate emergency — such as the company Shein, which will open in France this week — it is political leaders, NGOs, trade unionists and employers’ representatives who are calling, alongside CFDT, CGT, UNSA and CFE CGC, and the Impact France movement, to safeguard the duty of care in order to defend a European economic model based on justice and respect for the environment and human rights.

A climate killing and potentially illegal tax loophole through the Energy Taxation Directive (ETD)

Meanwhile, a confidential note from the Council of the European Union revealed by Politico shows that the Twenty Seven could maintain a tax loophole for the aviation, maritime transport and fishing sectors until 2035, exempting them from any tax on kerosene and diesel.

While public funds to finance essential public services and policies to mitigate and adapt to climate breakdown are a vital need, the revenue loss from this single measure, which may be illegal, is considerable: more than €45 billion per year for the Twenty Seven, including over €3 billion for France.

Critical milestones on November 5

On these two files, which will be put to a vote on November 13 in the European Parliament for the former and for unanimous decision in the Council of the European Union for the latter, tomorrow, Wednesday November 5, represents critical milestones:

• The deadline for submitting amendments to the Omnibus directive in the European Parliament. Valérie Hayer, chair of the Renew group and a key architect of the Green Deal under the previous legislature, is up against the wall to save the duty of care from the abyss.

• A final meeting of diplomats (in the so-called “COREPER II” committee) on energy taxation where Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Finance Minister Roland Lescure have the power to veto the proposal put forward by the Danish Presidency and demand further negotiations to reach an agreement that will finally lift the tax exemption on kerosene and marine diesel.