Former Dutch foreign minister Wopke Hoekstra struck back on Monday evening against accusations that he lacks the credentials needed to spearhead the EU's climate action policies.
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00:00 The Dutch politician and former oil executive Wapke Hoekstra faced a three-hour grilling
00:07 from MEPs, who he's hoping will green-light his appointment as EU Commissioner for Climate
00:12 Action. His nomination by the Netherlands follows the resignation of Frans Timmermans,
00:17 who's returned to Dutch politics. Hoekstra, a former vice prime minister, foreign minister
00:22 and Christian Democrat party leader, promised to continue with the EU's ambitious climate
00:27 plan. "With the European Green Deal, President von der Leyen and former executive vice president
00:32 Timmermans laid the foundations for Europe's green transformation. And I want to assure
00:39 you that continuity is in place on the entire Green Deal. In my own portfolio, I aim to
00:48 swiftly conclude all pending negotiations. But I will not be a caretaker. It simply wouldn't
00:56 do justice to the scale, to the magnitude of our challenge." Hoekstra's two-year stint
01:04 working for Shell led some MEPs to question his credibility for a role leading climate
01:09 change action. One German MEP was worried that the biggest EU political group would
01:14 misuse the key position. "The real question is, will the EPP continue with their anti-Green
01:23 Deal politics, voting against all of the climate laws, or will we have an ambitious climate
01:28 policy? And he needs to be still more convincing. He had nice words, but not concrete. So I
01:35 will try to pin him down." At the hearing, Hoekstra said he would cut CO2 emissions by
01:40 90% by 2040. That pledge went too far for some of his own Conservative party members.
01:47 "He needs to convince the Environment Committee, and that's why he does commitments, which
01:55 I don't always like. So we are not so enthusiastic about fixing the ambition for the 2040 target
02:04 already now." The European Parliament will vote on Hoekstra's nomination on Thursday.
02:13 The war in Ukraine and climate change.
02:16 [WHOOSH]