Early last year, we launched our campaign on the Taxonomy: no green money for airplanes and ships! We started a petition demanding that the European Union remove fossil fuel-powered airplanes and ships from Europe’s green investment list. Now, a year later, we are handing over this petition, signed by more than 43,000 (!) people, in Brussels.

What is the Taxonomy?

Since 2020, the European Commission has been working on the EU Taxonomy – a kind of handbook for investors that indicates which investments are truly green and which are not. It has even been called the ‘Dictionary of Sustainability’. Many investors, such as pension funds and banks, want to invest in green projects for various reasons. With this list, the EU makes it easier to shift large financial flows away from climate-harming products and services and towards real climate solutions such as wind and solar energy, heat pumps, and high-speed trains.

Lobbyists Infiltrate the European Parliament

But lobbyists have infiltrated the European Parliament, copying the cuckoo’s cunning strategy of laying its eggs in the nests of other birds instead of raising its own young. The unsuspecting foster mother hatches the cuckoo chick and raises it, unaware that this intruder will push her own offspring out of the nest.

And this is what is happening with the Taxonomy of the EU’s Green Deal. Thanks to powerful lobbyists – such as the aviation industry’s IATA – fossil fuel-powered (cruise) ships and airplanes have quietly found their way onto the list, just like a cuckoo’s egg. And just like in nature, these fossil cuckoo eggs are pushing out truly sustainable alternatives. After all, money can only be spent once.

Even more concerning is the new Omnibus Law, which is currently in the works. This proposal aims to ‘simplify’ the Taxonomy, but in reality, it would make it even easier to label false solutions as sustainable. Simply put: the risk is that even more cuckoo eggs will end up in the nest.

More than 43,000 people across Europe have signed our petition demanding that the European Union remove fossil fuel-powered ships and airplanes from the green list. Our message is crystal clear: labelling fossil fuel-powered ships and airplanes as green? That’s greenwashing at its worst.

While we have already launched a lawsuit against the European Commission together with partner organisations, this shouldn’t be left to the courts to fix. The European Parliament has the power and responsibility to stop this greenwashing and ensure that the Taxonomy is used for its true purpose: real climate solutions.

We handed over this petition in Brussels, but we’re not coming empty-handed. With a giant cuckoo’s egg, we’re making it clear to the European Union exactly what they are doing: raising the wrong egg.

European Parliament: Kick False Solutions Out of the Nest and Keep the Taxonomy Truly Green.

 

 

Want to help? Your donation will help us keep pressure on the European Parliament and the Commission to ensure that (cruise) ships and airplanes do not receive a green label.