How do you think the US withdrawal will affect non-EU countries and their commitment to fight climate change?



It very much depends on the interdependence of their economies with that of the United States. If you have very close economic relationships, if companies from your country are under heavy regulation due to climate action legislation and US companies do not have to face the same regulatory framework, the industrial competitiveness becomes important. That is why I believe the European Commission should respond to this genuine concern about the potential economic imbalance in the transatlantic relationship.



Beyond EU-US relations, it also remains to be seen how committed [non-EU] countries will be. We all know there is a difference between political declarations and actual implementation.



What should be the next steps by the EU in the fight against climate change?



We need to have a very active climate diplomacy, in order to keep the other signatories in line with their commitments. The natural partner for us has always been the United States, but now we find ourselves alone in our leadership on climate. It will be challenging, for sure, but the European Union has a lot of experience in working with other countries to tackle climate change. This is nothing new for us.



However, we need to give a quick response, not from a climate change point of view, but from an economic point of view. Our economies - both in Europe and US - are so interdependent that this rift between us is going to heavily affect the competitiveness of our businesses.

In my opinion, we have to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy. A transition is always hard and it affects competitiveness, but the sooner we get there, the better opportunities our economy will have.