Poisoned by unchecked pollution, weakened by delayed climate action, and exhausted by short-term thinking – Europe is unwell. Yet instead of treating the disease or changing its habits, some very loud voices keep insisting it needs to run faster, ignoring all the symptoms.
By Luc Powell, first published in the European Correspondent
Among the most neglected of these symptoms is methane – an odourless, colourless gas invisible not only to the naked eye, but too often to EU policy.
Methane is one of the most powerful climate-warming gases, trapping 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. The good news is that it doesn’t linger. With an atmospheric lifespan of 10–12 years, cutting methane today could slow climate breakdown within a single political cycle.
But methane is not just a climate problem. It’s a silent public health emergency. As a precursor to ground-level ozone – a major air pollutant – it fuels respiratory disease, reduces crop yields, and damages ecosystems. In 2022 alone, the European Environment Agency estimated that 70,000 premature deaths in the EU could have been avoided if the EU worked to stay below WHO’s Air Quality Guideline. That’s equivalent to prematurely losing the entire population of a mid-sized European city each year.
Prevention is cheaper than treatment
In medicine, early treatment saves lives – and in public policy, it saves lives and billions. Failing to act on existing environmental law costs Europe around €180 billion a year, including €2 billion in food crop losses linked to ground-level ozone. Preventing further pollution through strong legislation isn’t just ethical, it’s economically sound.
The agricultural sector is Europe’s biggest methane emitter, yet also one of the primary victims. Despite the toll that ozone takes on crops, EU agriculture policy still fails to take the climate crisis seriously, while EU climate policy largely ignores the sector.
In 2021, the EU helped launch the Global Methane Pledge, where more than 150 countries committed to cutting emissions by 30% by 2030. Four years later, the EU is set to miss the very target it helped to pioneer.
When “simplification” becomes negligence
Policy, like medicine, should be guided by rigorous evidence – not slogans. If bureaucracy truly hampers the EU’s functioning, we should align reporting, cut duplication, and harmonise definitions. But when “simplification” lowers standards, delays enforcement, or dodges monitoring, it’s not simplification. It’s negligence.
Recently, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen finally said the quiet part out loud: “We all agree that we need simplification. We all agree that we need deregulation.”
The phrase caused outrage – and rightly so. Firstly, we do not all agree. Secondly, simplification and deregulation are not the same medicine. Simplification makes rules smarter; deregulation makes them weaker. The former trims friction; the latter trims ambition.
Prescribing deregulation – but who wrote the prescription?
Not Europe’s citizens, 75% of whom support binding rules to hold companies accountable for their climate and human rights impacts. Not scientists or economists, who have long warned of the high costs of inaction.
This prescription comes from a tiny minority of powerful business associations that profit from the status quo – hijacking the language of “competitiveness” to undo environmental and social progress. And now these same interests are lining up behind the deregulation agenda, armed with their shopping lists and talking points.
If the Commission bows to these short-term pressures, without proper assessment or public consultation, it risks eroding not only environmental protection – including some that haven’t even come into force yet – but trust in democracy itself.
The classic misdiagnosis
Europe’s illness is not caused by too much protection, but by a failure to properly implement already agreed upon protections. From toxic pollution to climate breakdown, the EU doesn’t need a crash diet to be “competitive”. It needs real care – the kind that ensures clean air to breathe, healthy food to eat, and resilient systems that protect both people and planet.
A healthier future is possible
As the fastest-warming continent on Earth, the EU cannot afford to confuse “less regulation” with “better results.” The science is clear and has been for decades; cutting methane is one of the fastest and most effective ways to cool the planet, strengthen our economy, improve public health, and protect farmer livelihoods – the positive impacts for society are clear.
If Europe truly wants to recover – to heal its air, climate, and democracy – it must stop taking the wrong medicine. The cure lies not in weakening protections, but in enforcing and expanding them.
Methane is a test of whether the EU is ready to treat the root causes of its illness, with stronger environmental rules, that are properly implemented. Only then can Europe breathe easier.
Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash
