The fight against global warming is the battle of the century – Charles Michel

The fight against climate change was a major focus of Michel’s address to the country’s authorities at their traditional new-year meeting at the Palace. He mentioned, among other things, the climate marches staged in Belgium in recent weeks, initiatives taken by his government and the challenges ahead.

The struggle for the environment “supposes a transformation of the way we consume, produce, move around and work” and “reconciling the challenge of making ends meet with the issue of the end of the world,” he stressed.

Listing some of the environment-friendly initiatives taken during this legislature, he noted that “offshore windmills in the North Sea produce electricity for one million households throughout the country, and this know-how is being exported more and more”.

He also mentioned the investment pact, the issuing of green bonds, environmental and energy transformation projects, the approval by a parliamentary commission of strategic investments for the railway sector and the validation of the country’s national climate plan by the Consultative Committee.

“We have to pursue the work,” he stressed. “The call is clear: Do more, faster, and more strongly”.

However, “proclaiming an ambition is not enough; additional measures need to be prepared,” Prime Minister Michel noted, and “their short, medium and long-term impact on the population needs to be assessed and quantified with precision and objectivity.”

Oscar Schneider
–