Claude Turmes

The Book of Role Models had the honour of talking to Claude Turmes, the Minister for Energy and Minister for Spatial Planning of the Government of Luxembourg. We not only touched upon politics and what it is like to be a minister but also talked about what inspires and motivates Claude, among other things.

Claude Turmes has been in his current role since 5 December 2018. Prior to that, he served as a Member of the European Parliament for many years. During his time in the European Parliament, he occupied different positions in the Committee on environment, health and consumer protection as well as the Committee on industry, energy, telecom and research.

Your background is in sports and physical education. How did you get involved in a completely different field – politics?

It was a gradual change. I started dabbling in politics from the time I was 23–24, after I had finished my degree and qualified as a sports teacher, ready to join Luxembourg’s educational system. Around then, I became involved in a couple of ecology projects. One of them concerned a local dumpsite, which was causing some issues in the locality and had polluted the nearby river. The aim of the project was to make this problem known and our efforts were quite successful – we managed to attract local authorities’ attention fairly quickly which led to the reorganisation of the dumpsite.

This local victory brought me in touch with the national ecological group – Friends of the Earth Luxembourg – and I started getting involved with the climate change movement.

While I was part of the Friends of the Earth, we were often discussing about lobbying the European Parliament (EP) members. I remember being on holiday, in the mountains, when I had this idea ‘Why don’t I join the EP myself and try to influence things directly?’ In 1999, when I was about 38–39, I stood in the election as a candidate for the Green party and was successful. So it was a very gradual evolution from a grassroots activist to a professional politician.

You have now finished your service as a Member of the European Parliament. What was your experience there and why did you leave?

The European Parliament (EP) is a very powerful body. Its decisions on EU-wide legislation affect almost half a billion citizens. Not only does it have a direct impact on Europe – the life quality and interaction between economy and environment – but it also influences world standards. An example would be a piece of legislation to regulate the chemical industry (REACH). As the chemical industry is a global one, after this legislation had passed in the EU, it had an impact on other jurisdictions too – for example, it was copied in China and largely implemented in the USA.

I felt very much at ease in the EP because it is not a rigid black-and-white system of majority and opposition. Instead, on every project you have a group of members of parliament working together to find an agreement on a piece of legislation. I felt I had real power to influence the decisions made on renewable energy, zero-energy buildings and climate change.

My decision to leave and return home to Luxembourg was not something I had planned. It was influenced by the death of my friend and Green State Secretary Camille Gira in the spring of 2018. This was three months before the national elections and I came back to help my party win. We did and so now I am a member of the government here in Luxembourg.

Marc Lazzarini

What has been the biggest struggle in pursuing your career as a politician?

In politics, I have two main challenges. One of them is moving things at the right pace to achieve the change you want. You need to be very organised and able to engage people so that decisions are made and actions taken quickly. This is especially important in high-stake areas such as climate change and energy efficiency, where problems are escalating and changes need to be made fast.

Another thing that is challenging for me is maintaining the work-life balance. Politics is a difficult and consuming job, almost inevitably characterised by crazy workload. It can be difficult to find time for things like love or personal development. There are so many sad stories in politics where professional politicians are eaten up by their career and neglect almost every other sphere of their lives.

So how do you maintain that work-life balance? What helps you to recharge and switch off from politics?

First and foremost, love is incredibly important in life. Secondly, as a trained sports teacher, I am naturally keen on sports. I swim, run, do fitness exercises and have a big passion for yoga (for 25 years now). Nature is another great way to unwind – I enjoy walks and yearn for mountain scenery on my holidays.

If you were not involved in politics in any way, what area would you be interested in? What else would you like to do?

The next project I have in mind is related to personal and societal development. It is closely linked with spirituality and, what I call, ‘evolution of mindset’. I am planning to organise workshops and conferences to raise awareness and help people re-evaluate their priorities in life. The idea is to bring together inspirational people and help Luxembourg develop as a country as well as helping individuals to improve themselves.

This project has not started yet, partially because I currently do not have enough time to fully commit myself to it. Another reason that stops me from developing this idea further is the fact that I am still involved in policy-making. I feel it is important to clearly separate my political activity and what is my personal passion.

It can be difficult to get young people interested and involved in politics. It is equally challenging to secure and maintain their trust in policy-makers. What do you think can be done to improve the situation?

To create a sense of responsibility about democracy, we need to ensure a positive environment. There are countries where from a very young age, even in kindergarten, children are introduced to the concepts of democracy, collective decision-making and responsibility. A basic example could be children sitting together to decide whether they should get a pet and how they would care for it. That is, essentially, an introduction to democratic decision-making.

“To create a sense of responsibility about democracy, we need to ensure a positive environment.”

As policy-makers I think we should give more room to citizens or their representatives, such as NGOs, so they can interact and make decisions themselves. It comes down to trusting people to make the right decisions on matters that concern them. This can mean allocating a pot of money to certain groups or certain geographical areas and helping them work out how it should be spent.

“As policy-makers I think we should give more room to citizens or their representatives, such as NGOs, so they can interact and make decisions themselves. It comes down to trusting people to make the right decisions on matters that concern them.”

With the current climate crisis it is also important that policy-makers are outspoken and dare to be clear about what measures need to be taken – even where these measures may not be popular. Moving society forward takes certain courage and requires politicians to push aside their personal worries about being re-elected and securing public support. You cannot make significant changes by being too cautious.

“Moving society forward takes certain courage and requires politicians to push aside their personal worries about being re-elected and securing public support. You cannot make significant changes by being too cautious.”

What is the most rewarding part of your job as a politician?

It is incredibly rewarding to be a politician – whether as a minister of a national government or as a Member of the European Parliament. Being able to move forward renewable energy, such as solar and offshore wind energy, is quite fulfilling. At the European Parliament, you feel like one of the main actors in drafting key legislation for 500 million European citizens. With one piece of EU legislation my colleagues and I basically created a volume market that was so big that we have been able to reduce the costs of renewable energy. Europe paved the way for very cheap production of solar energy, the principle of which can now be invested in African villages. European policies allowed mass volume investments into offshore wind generation, which significantly cut down the costs. We were involved in the ‘dieselgate’ and contributed to the first steps of ending the reliance on fossil fuels in car industry and moving towards climate-friendly practices. Nowadays, across the EU, any new building has to be zero energy and this goes back to an amendment we made back in 2010. All of this significant legislation was my job and, as much as it was challenging, it was a massive reward to see the legislation being passed and policies adopted.

“In politics, you can put forward what you think is right but then, inevitably, you have to deal with all the different points of view and conflicting interests.”

I do not underplay the difficult aspects of the job. In politics, you can put forward what you think is right but then, inevitably, you have to deal with all the different points of view and conflicting interests. The challenge is to design a political strategy that will ensure the best possible outcome for the majority of people. You have to compromise somewhere.

“The challenge is to design a political strategy that will ensure the best possible outcome for the majority of people.”

Today, I am very fortunate to be able to implement on the national level the EU legislature that I helped to frame. As a minister, I can now play an active role in shaping the energy revolution that we need to implement as quickly as possible to achieve our climate targets. I am pleased to see that more and more people are taking this path together and that we are thus able to work towards not only greater climate protection but also democratisation of the energy sector.

Speaking about life in general, what are the most important things for you?

I would say love and health. Love, because it is just beautiful. And I do not just mean romance. Being surrounded by people that are your friends and that you have a nice relationship with – that’s also love. Throughout my time in the European Parliament (EP) I learned that if you work with people whom you get along with and who share the same passion and vision as you do, it is not so much work as a pleasure.

“If you work with people whom you get along with and who share the same passion and vision as you do, it is not so much work as a pleasure.”

I was part of a smaller team (6–8 people) in EP and now am working with a roughly 40–person team throughout the government departments. It is harder to maintain a close relationship with such a big group of people but we still make an effort!

What would you say is your biggest fear?

That’s a good question. I think I’m a lucky man and, in general, have been guided by positivity in life. Fear is not a good consultant in difficult situations and I try to be optimistic rather than succumb to anxieties. That’s not my way of approaching things.

Nevertheless I am quite worried about climate change and the future of our planet. But instead of being paralyzed by this fear, I try to contribute to finding a solution.

“Instead of being paralyzed by fear, I try to contribute to finding a solution.”

What inspires you to achieve your goals?

There are two things that can bring you closer to your passion. One of them is looking deep into yourself and trying to understand who you really are, what your character and personality is. For example, yoga has helped me to find a technique to better understand myself.

The second thing is relying on your friends and like-minded people. You can test your ideas against those you trust. In sports, I always had a team whom I could rely on and so my first steps were easier to take. When I got involved in ecology, there were always two or three of us to back each other up. Having people around can help you get through doubts and times when you don’t feel inspired.

In terms of global trends, and beside the ecological issues of course, what other problems do you think we need to focus on?

A worrying trend we have to reverse is inequality. This is relevant all around the world, of course, with huge gaps between the financially developed and under- developed nations. But it’s also the case closer to home, here in Western Europe. After World War II we had reduced inequality for 30–40 years but it’s growing again. And the policies of ‘trickle-down’ economics [whereby taxes for the rich are reduced in the hope that business investments will improve the overall economy with money ‘trickling down’ from the top to affect everyone], cleverly pushed by wealthy people, have been statistically shown not to function. This problem has to be addressed with the same vigour as the climate crisis and other ecological issues.

Inequality is a complex issue and affects a wide array of areas in our lives – from access to and quality of education, to tax policies, to financial wealth, to housing opportunities. I believe in universal right to adequate housing, for example. This is an issue even in the wealthier countries where people in full-time employment can find themselves facing poverty if the housing market collapses.

Another topic is digitalisation. It will be a fantastic accelerator but my fear is that people might get lost in this rapid change. People have already been overwhelmed and the pace of digitalisation is only going to pick up. If it is not regulated, then it’s up to each one of us to be strong enough not to get dazzled by this digital world, which is a big ask.

Marc Lazzarini

If you could pass on one lesson to others, what would it be?

For me, life is passion. It’s about finding the right path for you – after that, everything becomes so much easier. I have been very privileged in that I was able to follow my passions. My first hobby was sports and it led me to becoming a sports teacher. Similarly, my passion for ecology and putting the broader public interests above economic targets has led me to my current profession as a politician.

“Life should not be about routine, but passion.”