San Francisco Frontiers - After heatwaves, will EU pivot back to the climate fight?

The fight against global warming is expected to feature prominently in a key policy speech by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen this month, after two years critics say were marked by major environmental rollbacks.

With Europe barely emerging from a sweltering summer, climate would have been hard to ignore in the normally sprawling "State of the European Union" address -- a yearly speech setting out political priorities for the next 12 months.

After years as a leading EU cause, climate concerns have taken the backseat to defence and industry goals over the past couple of years -- to the frustration of environmentalists.

The bloc has notably watered down new green rules for businesses and proposed abandoning a ban on the sale of new internal combustion engine cars by 2035.

Yet some hope the September 16 speech could signal a rebalancing of priorities in Brussels.

In August, about 200 environmental groups urged von der Leyen in a letter to use the speech to lay out concrete plans to wean the 27-nation bloc off fossil fuels.

And in a possible harbinger of things to come, the EU's 27 commissioners are scheduled to meet Swedish climatologist Johan Rockstrom for a post-summer seminar in Brussels on Friday.

- 'Uphill battle' -

But other evidence points in a different direction.

EU sources say von der Leyen will focus on "climate resilience" and the economic potential of green industries -- two low-hanging fruits.

The latter has been a familiar refrain during von der Leyen's seven years at the helm and legislation on climate resilience was already due to be presented before the end of the year.

The kind of ambitious climate legislation that defined von der Leyen's first five years in office -- known as the Green Deal -- is a hard sell in Brussels these days.

Green parties lost out in the 2024 European elections, and the business-friendly centre-right now holds sway in a European Parliament where climate sceptics on the far-right also have a bigger say.

The priority is not "to repaint in green laws that Europeans have asked to be changed", said right-wing lawmaker Celine Imart.

Within the commission itself there are divisions.

In recent months for example green voices have clashed with pro-business colleagues over the impact of a carbon market reform on the aviation and maritime transport sectors.

At the same time, EU countries are wrangling over where to allocate the limited resources that are to be dished out under the bloc's next long-term budget.

"It's going to be an uphill battle," said Green leader Terry Reintke.

Her group was nevertheless going to "push very, very hard" to have von der Leyen lay out concrete climate actions in her speech.

"We are talking about existential situations here," she told AFP.

E.Jones--SFF