BRUSSELS — Donald Trump trashing United States climate efforts will empower rivals to control the industries of tomorrow, Europe’s top competition and climate official said Thursday.
“It is not good news that a big player such as the United States decides to go in a different direction,” Teresa Ribera said in an interview in her offices in Brussels. “It is not good news for anyone. But … whenever there is a big player that decides to abandon a room, there will be other players entering.”
Ribera is in her second week as a European Commission executive vice president, one of just six helping run the European Union’s executive branch. Her portfolio makes her only more powerful.
A veteran climate official, Ribera is in charge of delivering a “clean, just and competitive transition” away from the EU’s fossil fuel economy. She is also steering the EU’s mighty division that controls state aid and antitrust policy. On paper, that makes Ribera one of the most influential EU executives ever to sit in the Berlaymont.
