San Francisco Frontiers - Europe's Greens have the blues as climate measures rolled back

"It's one of the worst scenarios you could imagine," summed up Marie Toussaint, a French lawmaker with the European Parliament's Greens. "Emotionally, we are all wondering how to get through this."

Ursula von der Leyen's first mandate as European Commission chief from 2019 to 2024 saw the adoption of a landmark environmental Green Deal -- spurred by youth marches demanding action against global warming.

And in a major step, the 27-nation European Union agreed to outlaw the sale of new combustion engine vehicles by 2035, with a target of reaching carbon-neutrality by 2050.

Fast forward to the present, and the contrast is stark.

Europe's Greens lost a quarter of their seats in European elections last June -- a contest marked by right and far-right gains across the bloc.

The shift was most pronounced in powerhouses Germany and France, where Toussaint's list for the Greens barely hit the five-percent threshold to qualify for EU parliament seats.

"It was a pretty serious shock," the 37-year-old lawmaker told AFP.

Hostility to the EU green agenda had been swelling for months before the elections -- with right-wing parties egging on protests by farmers denouncing the weight of new environmental rules.

With US President Donald Trump now threatening a trade war, von der Leyen insists the EU remains committed to its green goals -- but has made clear the priority of her second term is boosting competitiveness.

This week the commission proposed paring back environmental rules for businesses -- the ink barely dry on some of them -- to give European industry more space to compete with US and Chinese rivals.

- 'The best we got' -

"Many of us had a bit of a shock," said Denmark's Kira Peter-Hansen, who was elected as the European Parliament's youngest member in 2019.

"Personally, I truly realised in September or October that the context had completely changed," said the 27-year-old -- who regrets "we didn't appreciate the 2019-2024 years more, realising 'Wow, that was the best we got'".

"Now the political situation is different," she said. "As Greens we are all trying to figure out if we want to save whatever we can -- or if we should be in the opposition," she said.

Reluctantly, she has so far gone with the first option -- working with the conservative-led EU majority as it seeks to balance economic and environmental goals.

- 'Backlash' -

The Greens' frustration is shared by environmental groups, who are being forced into a much more defensive posture than five years ago.

"Looking at the political landscape in the Council (of EU member states) and the parliament, the prospect of having any ambitious environmental legislation is actually pretty slim," said ClientEarth's John Condon.

For Phuc-Vinh Nguyen of the Jacques Delors institute, the worst may be yet to come for Europe's environmentalists.

"There is a clear backlash taking place on these subjects," he said.

Feeling the wind in their sails, industry leaders are calling for Brussels to roll back more climate measures deemed too onerous for business.

In the EU parliament, the leader of the hard-right Patriots for Europe, France's Jordan Bardella, is calling for the Green Deal to be repealed outright.

"Some laws have fallen victim to the anti-green backlash," conceded centrist EU lawmaker Pascal Canfin, who sits on parliament's environment committee.

"But it's wrong to say it's all going to be undone," said Canfin -- who unlike some Green colleagues insists he is not "depressed" by the turn of events.

"We need to convince people that making the green transition is in our economic interest -- and to keep on fighting," he said.

M.Powell--SFF