EU commission unveils climate law amid criticism
Source: Associated Press
EU commission unveils climate law amid criticism
By SAMUEL PETREQUIN
March 4, 2020
BRUSSELS (AP) — Amid fierce criticism from environmental activists, the European Commission is unveiling plans Wednesday for its first ever climate law — the basis of the European Union’s Green Deal aimed at making the 27-country bloc climate neutral by 2050.
With its proposals, the EU’s executive arm wants to make its ambition of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to zero by mid-century irreversible, and legally-binding for all member states.
According to a leaked draft of the proposals establishing the 2050 goal, the European Commission is proposing a mechanism for regularly raising the EU’s emissions reduction target over the next three decades, but there is no plan for an increase of the bloc’s overall emissions goal for 2030.
This particular point has been harshly criticized by climate activists, who claim that delaying the upgraded 2030 target is detrimental to the bloc’s credibility in the fight against climate change. In the draft, the European Commission only said it would review the EU’s current target of a 40% greenhouse gas reduction by September and “explore options for a new 2030 target of 50% to 55% emission reductions compared with 1990 levels.”
Environmental group Greenpeace said Wednesday that because of the absence of a 2030 goal, EU governments will “find it extremely difficult to agree a new target” before the U.N climate talks that will be held in Glasgow in November.
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