EU will raise its climate goals for 2030 despite the postponement of COP26

The European Commission (EC) has assured that it will continue working to raise the climate objectives of the European Union (EU) in the horizon of 2030 despite the fact that the United Nations climate summit (COP26) initially scheduled in November in the British town of Glasgow has been postponed to 2021.

“We will not slow down our work (…). We have implemented key EU laws to meet our current climate and energy targets for 2030. In the long term, we have committed to climate neutrality by 2050 and have proposed a climate law that will make this target legally binding,” EC Vice-President for the Green Deal Frans Timmermans said in a statement.

The Commission is working “to present by September 2020 an impact assessment plan to raise the EU’s ambitions for 2030 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50-55% compared to 1990 levels,” he added.

“It’s underway and the Commission will stick to that,” Timmermans said.

With the UN climate summit on the horizon, the European Commission was working on an update of the EU’s environmental objectives in the 2030 horizon.

These are currently set at a reduction of at least 40% of CO2 emissions compared to 1990 levels, a 32% reduction in renewable energy consumption and a 32.5% improvement in energy efficiency, but Brussels was studying the national plans presented by each of the countries of the European Union to raise that ambition.

The European Commission has set itself the goal of making the EU climate neutral by 2050, that is, to only emit as much CO2 and equivalents as it is able to absorb on its territory.

For their part, several environmental organizations have called on the EU to raise its 2030 targets this year despite the fact that COP26 will not be held in Glasgow next November and that the Bonn preparatory talks scheduled for October have also been delayed.

“Postponing the UN climate talks is understandable. That does not change the EU’s obligation to raise its 2030 climate targets before the end of the year,” Greenpeace climate policy chief Sebastian Mang said in a statement.

In the same vein, the Climate Action Network (CAN) considers it reasonable to postpone those appointments due to mobility restrictions and that governments must now prioritize “the health, safety and jobs of their citizens”, but remember that poor management of the climate crisis could have similarities with the coronavirus pandemic.

“Like a fast-spreading virus, climate change is not fixed at borders. If a country is not safe, no country is. Postponing the Bonn session to later this year and COP26 to next year does not mean postponing climate ambition,” said CAN Executive Director Tasneem Essop.

Source: The Vanguard