EU leaders meeting in Brussels today failed to agree to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050 and to commit to revising the EU’s 2030 climate target, due to a veto from the Polish, Czech, Estonian and Hungarian governments.
Commenting on the outcomes of the European Council, Wendel Trio, Director of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe said:
“It is hard to believe that these four governments, driven by the narrow interests of their polluting industries, succeeded in their opposition to a widely-supported and badly-needed increase of the EU’s climate ambition. Failure to set new, higher EU climate targets is irresponsible given the climate emergency we are facing. EU leaders need to urgently come back to the negotiating table at another Council meeting to circumvent the veto ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit in September.”
To keep temperature rise to safe levels, the EU needs to reach net zero emissions by 2040 at the latest and reduce emissions by 65% by 2030. To reach these targets, it must eliminate financial support to all fossil fuels and dedicate 40% of its future budget to climate action.
ENDS
Ania Drazkiewicz, CAN Europe Head of Communications, ania@caneurope.org, +32 494 525 738
Notes
[1] U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres letter, calling upon the EU to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050 and increase its 2030 climate target to 55 percent reductions in emissions: https://caneurope.org/docman/climate-energy-targets/3548-letter-from-un-secretary-general-on-the-eu-s-contribution-to-the-climate-action-summit/file
Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe is Europe’s leading NGO coalition fighting dangerous climate change. With over 160 member organisations from 35 European countries, representing over 1.700 NGOs and more than 47 million citizens, CAN Europe
