The European Union has reached a tentative climate deal that should make the 27-nation bloc climate-neutral by 2050, with member states and parliament agreeing on the targets on the eve of a virtual summit that US President Biden will host.
“Our political commitment to becoming the first climate neutral continent by 2050 is now also a legal commitment. The Climate Law sets the EU on a green path for a generation,” said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen early Wednesday (local time).
Under the provisional deal reached after officials negotiated through the night, the EU also commits itself on an intermediate target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 per cent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
Member states and the EU parliament have agreed on the targets that should make the 27-nation bloc climate-neutral by 2050.
“It was high time for the agreement, as Europe has to show where it stands in view of the positive developments in the USA and China,” said Member of the European Parliament Peter Liese, the negotiator for the European People’s Party Christian Democrat group.
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Up to now, the 2030 target had been 40 per cent but under the pressure of increasing evidence of climate change and a more environmentally-conscious electorate that target was pushed up, even if the EU legislature had wanted at 60 per cent target.
The Greens specifically complained that too many accounting tricks had been used to reach the level of 55 per cent while in reality the reduction would be lower.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers a statement re-affirming the EU’s commitment to becoming the first climate neutral continent.
The United States, the world’s second-biggest polluter after China, is preparing to announce its new target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Under Biden, the United States has returned to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and all global partners will be meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, to push for strong targets.
Both Washington and Brussels are aiming to go “carbon neutral” by mid-century, a goal scientists say needs to be achieved to keep average global temperatures from rising above 2 degrees Celsius by the year 2100.
Under President Biden, the United States is preparing to announce its new target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
<
p class=”sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph”> The Paris accord’s more ambitious target of capping global warming at 1.5 C by the end of the century compared with pre-industrial times would likely require even more drastic worldwide cuts in emissions.
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p class=”sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph”> Wednesday’s EU deal still needs to be officially approved by the member states and the legislature but should be little more than a rubber stamp.
