Former world leaders urge EU to hold the line on climate

By Virginia Furness

LONDON (Reuters) -A group of former world leaders is urging Europe to keep pushing its green agenda even as trade wars and defence spending distract attention from climate issues, Ireland's former President Mary Robinson told Reuters on Tuesday.

The Elders, a group set up by former South African President Nelson Mandela, are due to meet the EU and NATO later this month amid moves to water down impending corporate climate disclosure rules in response to concerns around competitiveness.

Robinson, Ireland's president from 1990 to 1997, said she was worried about the plans but that the bloc had an opportunity to seize leadership from the United States in the fast-growing market for clean technology and on climate policy more broadly.

"The crisis of a federal withdrawal in the United States from everything to do with climate and science is an opportunity for the European Union, the United Kingdom, and frankly, the rest of the world," she said.

"Moving as fast as the EU can on the green transition is exactly how to respond ... it's really important Europe sticks to its principles, sticks to its green industrial policy and doesn't renege at all."

The global market for clean technologies such as solar photovoltaic technology and wind turbines could grow from $700 billion in 2023 to more than $2 trillion by 2035, close in value to the world's crude oil market, the International Energy Agency has said.

Robinson warned Brussels not to let Russia's war in Ukraine and trade wars and anti-climate rhetoric led by U.S. President Donald Trump dictate longer-term thinking on climate issues. She added that many companies across the bloc were willing and able to support the green transition.

Robinson, along with the former prime minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland and international human rights campaigner Denis Mukwege will also urge Brussels to play a leading role on tackling the world's biggest threats and will be encouraging the EU to come up with a timely and ambitious climate action plan.

Set up in 2007, the Elders advocate for peace, justice, human rights and a sustainable planet. The group includes former U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark as members.

(Reporting by Virginia Furness in LondonEditing by Matthew Lewis)