Latest news with #Wopke Hoekstra
Bloomberg
17-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
EU Climate Chief Expects Pension Funds to Help Revamp Grids
The European Union's climate chief expects to attract the financial firepower of some of the bloc's biggest pension funds to help modernize power grids that are key to the green transition. As part of a new budget for 2028-2034, the bloc on Wednesday outlined a €410 billion ($475 billion) fund to help EU industries compete with overseas peers. Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told Bloomberg he's confident that will entice Dutch and Danish pension funds to invest in the region's electrification. He also said the extra funding should help convince skeptical countries to back a proposal to cut emissions by 90% by 2040.
CNA
13-07-2025
- Politics
- CNA
EU wants to see China taking more ambitious climate action
BEIJING: The world needs China to show more leadership on climate action, EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said on Sunday (Jul 13), highlighting the importance of cutting planet-heating emissions and reducing the Chinese economy's reliance on coal. Hoekstra is in Beijing for high-level talks with Chinese officials on environmental and climate issues at which he also wants to encourage China to stop building new coal-fired power plants and phase out use of the fossil fuel. "We do encourage China to take more of a leadership role going forward and really hit the road with meaningful emission reductions in the next couple of years, and also move out of the domain of coal," Hoekstra told Reuters in an interview. The number of coal power plants in the pipeline has been increasing in China - the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, according to the World Economic Forum. In the first three months this year, China's approved 11.29 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power plants exceeded the approval rate in the first half of 2024, a June report by environmental group Greenpeace showed. Last week, Hoekstra told the Financial Times the EU was holding off on signing a joint climate declaration with China unless Beijing pledges a greater commitment to reduce emissions. "We are open to looking into a potential declaration, but ... the thing that is most important about these types of statements is the content that goes into it," he said when asked about the issue, without specifying what commitment the EU hopes to see from China.
