Europe reaches major climate deal ahead of Biden summit
BRUSSELS — The European Union reached a tentative climate deal aimed at making the 27-nation bloc carbon-neutral by 2050, with negotiators from member states and the EU parliament agreeing on new emissions targets on the eve of a virtual summit hosted by President Biden.
“Our political commitment to becoming the first [carbon-neutral] continent by 2050 is now also a legal commitment. The climate law sets the EU on a green path for a generation,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said early Wednesday.
Under the provisional deal reached after officials negotiated through the night, the EU will also commit itself to an intermediate target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55%, compared to 1990 levels, by 2030.
“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 European Parliament member Peter Liese, the negotiator for the EPP Christian Democrat group in the parliament.
The 2030 target had been a 40% reduction, but under the pressure of increasing evidence of climate change and a more environmentally conscious electorate, the deadline was moved up. The EU’s parliament had wanted an even greater target reduction of 60%.
Parliament members from the Greens grouping complained that too many accounting tricks had been used to reach the level of 55% and that in reality the reduction would equate to a 52.8% reduction of direct emissions.
President Biden will pledge to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions at least in half by 2030 as he convenes a virtual climate summit with 40 world leaders.
The Greens’ environmental expert, Michael Bloss, said EU member nations and parliament “have rushed through a weak climate law for the sake of a photo op with President Joe Biden.”
The chair of the negotiations, Pascal Canfin of the Renew Europe group, said finding a middle way was necessary. He said that “the compromise reached is ambitious: We will do 2.5 times more in nine years than we have done in the last 10 years in Europe.”
The U.S., 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 U.S. has returned to the 2015 Paris climate agreement, and all global partners will meet in Glasgow, Scotland, later this year to push for strong targets.
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Both Washington and Brussels are aiming to go carbon-neutral by midcentury, a goal scientists say needs to be achieved to keep average global temperatures from rising more than 3.6 degrees by the year 2100. The Paris accord’s more ambitious target of capping global warming at 2.7 degrees by the end of the century, compared with pre-industrial times, would likely require even more drastic worldwide cuts in emissions.
Wednesday’s EU deal still needs to be officially approved by the member states and the European Parliament, but that should be little more than a rubber stamp.
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