The European Union on Wednesday announced the adoption of a package of proposals designed to make its climate, energy, land use, transport, and taxation policies fit for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.
The announcement stated that achieving these emission reductions in the next decade is crucial if Europe is to become the world’s first climate neutral continent by 2050 and make the European Green Deal a reality.
The European Green Deal was created in 2019 and seeks to transform the EU into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy by ensuring the EU achieves no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.
The proposals include the application of emissions trading to new sectors, a tightening of the existing EU Emissions Trading System, increased use of renewable energy, a faster roll-out of low emission transport modes and the infrastructure and fuels to support them, and tools to preserve and grow natural carbon sinks. It is suggested that the package will support a steep reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said of the package:
I am deeply convinced, and my team is deeply convinced, that this is our generational task – and it must unite us, it must encourage us. Because this is about securing the wellbeing, not only of our generation, but also of our children and of our grandchildren. And I think there is no greater and no more noble task than that. And Europe is ready to lead the way.
President von der Leyen also acknowledged the long way that Europe has come since the announcement of the European Green Deal and congratulated Europe on being the first continent to put forward a comprehensive architecture to meet climate ambitions. She stressed that the new package will also put jobs and social balance at the heart of climate transformation.
The draft proposals still need to be approved by the bloc’s 27 member states and the EU parliament. The proposals could face years of negotiation, BBC predicts.
