The Brussels government calls for higher climate ambitions but does not even meet the current targets

While the “purple-green” federal and Brussels governments call for higher climate targets at the climate summit in Glasgow, Brussels buys renewable energy statistics (virtual green electricity) from Lithuania for 2 to 3 million euros. That is necessary because Brussels failed to meet its renewable energy targets for 2020. For the future, too, the Brussels government is already assuming that the targets will be impossible to meet. The N-VA party leader in the Brussels-Capital Region Parliament, Cieltje Van Achter, criticises the fact that the taxpayer has to foot the bill for the unrealistic ambitions of the Brussels government on the one hand, and the lack of concrete measures to achieve the current objectives on the other.

“I recognise that it is not easy for an urbanised area to produce renewable energy,” says Cieltje Van Achter, “but I find it incomprehensible that the Brussels government ignores this reality merely to safeguard its so-called green image. This sham is now being pierced.”

Brussels will have to spend millions on energy statistics to avoid fines

According to Cieltje Van Achter, the Brussels government is engaged in a real race for ambition. “Where the sky is the limit. But the same government is already assuming that its ambitions are totally unachievable and that Brussels will therefore have to pay millions of euros to other countries in order to avoid European fines. For the 2030 target, competent minister Alain Maron already foresees that energy statistics must again be purchased abroad for two-thirds of the total target. But what does the climate gain from this? And how much will this cost the taxpayer in the long run?”

A plea for an energy and climate policy that is ambitious and realistic

Cieltje Van Achter urges the “purple-green” government in Brussels not to set unrealistic targets that will increase the bill for the people of Brussels. “Especially when it has already been established that the objective cannot be achieved. I am therefore calling for an ambitious but realistic energy and climate policy, in which the proposed objectives are not plucked out of thin air, but can actually be achieved on the basis of concrete and substantiated measures. It is also time for Minister Maron to come forward with these measures, for example, as regards the renovation strategy, because his current plans are far from convincing.”