The EU is poised to put a fierce advocate of emissions reduction in charge of its climate and environment agenda just as critics are saying the plans are weakening the bloc’s competitiveness.
Spanish Socialist Teresa Ribera is the frontrunner to become the next climate and environment commissioner after the Greens and Socialists in the European parliament said they would back her for the job.
After supporting Ursula von der Leyen in her bid for a second term as European Commission chief, the two political groups expect her to appoint an ambitious green commissioner in return.
All 27 commissioners will have to undergo parliamentary hearings and the assembly can force von der Leyen’s hand on appointments.
Ribera, who is currently serving as one of Spain’s deputy prime ministers and as minister for ecological transition, insists her record shows that economic growth and green measures can go hand in hand if businesses and households are given support.
“A proper combination of the social and green agendas is the best way to show we can ensure long-lasting economic performance and sustainability and attract new investment and innovation,” she told the Financial Times.
Leading the green transition was vital to ensure the EU could “catch the opportunities” and not just follow others, she said. That meant “a more honest and open conversation with stakeholders” and a “bottom-up approach”.
Ribera is a longtime environmentalist who has advised the World Economic Forum and the UN on climate matters.
She argued that Brussels should have done more to build support for green policies since it announced its Green Deal climate law in 2019. Farmers across Europe staged mass protests earlier this year after curbs aimed at protecting the environment were imposed on them.
“We need to bring people along, to go to local communities and stakeholders to understand [their] requirements . . . and learn how we can do better,” she said.
Echoing von der Leyen, the minister said the next phase of the EU’s climate plans would require a change in the way the bloc communicated its ambitions. “You have to be less ideological and [have] more pragmatism, and explain how all the costs in future will be higher.”
Von der Leyen has pledged to introduce a “Clean Industrial Deal” in the first 100 days of the new mandate to tie green goals closer to industrial concerns.
Ribera divides opinion. Allies say she is a perfectionist who demands a lot of her team and herself but that she respects opponents and does not crow about her victories.
“She is very knowledgeable . . . and I have great respect for her professionalism,” said Wopke Hoekstra, the EU’s current climate commissioner, who led the EU delegation with Ribera at the UN’s COP28 climate conference in December last year.
But a minister who worked with her during the EU energy crisis sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 said she was “too activist and too socialist”.
When Spain held the rotating presidency of the EU in 2023, Ribera drove through anti-pollution measures, including a crackdown on packaging waste and lower emissions standards for vehicles. But industry leaders said they would struggle to implement them.
Ribera has also clashed with industry opponents. In 2022, Ignacio Galán, executive chair of the Spanish energy group Iberdrola, criticised a Spanish move to bring down electricity prices by disconnecting the cost of the country’s electricity from wholesale European gas prices, saying it was a mistake to eschew common European solutions.
Ribera responded at the time that Galán “always defends the interests and profits of his shareholders”. Galán told the FT more recently that in the 20 years he had known Ribera “she has always demonstrated full commitment to sustainability and the green agenda”.
A senior executive at a business heavily invested in renewables said Spain had the right targets but the wrong policies in its national energy plan. Ribera tended to say the right thing but failed to follow through, the executive said, adding that Madrid needed to do more to integrate renewables into the power network and promote electric vehicles.
Ribera led the campaign for Spain’s Socialist party in this year’s European parliament elections and Spain is expected to confirm her nomination for the commission post by an August 30 deadline.
Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s climate minister, told the FT in June that she should be in “prime position” to replace Hoekstra.
The new commissioner will face a daunting in-tray, overseeing implementation of more than 70 bills already agreed by policymakers and aimed at cutting EU greenhouse gas emissions by 55 per cent by 2030 compared with 1990 levels.
The measures include a heavily contested ban on new internal combustion engines, due to come into force in 2035, and legislation to cut farming emissions, risking further protests by farmers.
Ribera defended her credentials for the job, saying that on her watch Spain had so far managed the green transition with “reasonable success” by creating confidence for investment and job creation.
In addition to decoupling electricity prices from gas prices, she also announced big subsidies for green hydrogen and initiated measures to address droughts crippling the country’s farmers.
“Of course we have difficulties. But we have managed to ensure access to water in every single [affected] city . . . and to give farmers support [for investment in water desalination and efficiency],” she said.
Spain is now one of the bloc’s biggest producers of wind and solar power as a proportion of its electricity mix.
But in an indication of potential internal battles with EU hawks on China, Ribera said the bloc needed to import cheap Chinese equipment — such as solar panels — to meet its climate targets. She also took a cautious stance on upcoming EU tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.
“It is not clear to what extent [the tariffs] are effective,” she said. “We need to make sure we compete and provide a level playing field, but be careful of trade measures that could backfire on us.”
Her long-standing scepticism towards nuclear power could also prove problematic for her approval by lawmakers from strongly pro-nuclear countries such as France and Czechia.
If Ribera is appointed, many in Brussels say they will read the move as a signal that von der Leyen maintains her appetite for a strong Green Deal.
“[Ribera] is probably one of the most experienced and senior climate politicians in Europe,” said Ryan. “If we are going to take the Green Deal seriously, why wouldn’t we put that person in charge?”
