Ahead of the Environment Council and the Climate High Level event on the 25th and 26th of March, CAN Europe has written to Europe’s environment ministers in relation to national and EU climate action towards and post 2030.
With current global warming getting closer to the safer threshold of 1.5°C, the window of opportunity to avoid the most dangerous climate change is rapidly closing. While delaying climate action will imply dramatic costs for society and the economy, as recently highlighted by the European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA), acting timely and decisively will bring a wide range of benefits; research shows that following an ambitious decarbonisation pathway aligned with the 1.5°C temperature goal, the EU could gain at least €1 trillion already by 2030 1 .
In this context, the outcome of COP28 clearly signals that the direction of travel is moving away from fossil fuels. It is now crucial that the EU and its Member States translate this commitment into national targets and measures aligned with science that deliver on the 1.5°C temperature goal in an equitable manner.
