The European Parliament calls for the EU to commit to achieving climate neutrality by 2050

The Environment Committee of the European Parliament has asked on Wednesday that the European Union commit to achieving climate neutrality – reducing _CO2 emissions to the maximum and offsetting the rest – at the Climate Summit that will finally be held in Madrid, known as COP25.

The MEPs of this parliamentary committee have also underlined the need for the EU bloc to raise its emission reduction targets for 2030 to help achieve this goal, so that the EU “maintains its leadership in the fight against climate change”.

In the text, the commission warns that the current ambition in the maritime and aviation sectors “falls short” and urges all Member States to include polluting emissions from these two sectors in their national emission reduction strategies.

In addition, he stresses that European partners must “at least” double their contributions to the Green Climate Fund and recalls that current commitments are not enough to reach the global goal of mobilizing 100,000 million dollars in 2020 to the fight against climate change.

Finally, MEPs have urged European capitals to eliminate all direct and indirect subsidies to fossil fuels by the end of this decade. In the same vein, they have asked the European Investment Bank (EIB) to stop financing fossil fuel projects, except in the case of gas if it is combined with other renewable sources.

The Environment Committee of the European Parliament has approved this resolution with 62 votes in favor and 11 against. The text, however, is due to be adopted at a plenary session later this month.

However, heads of state and government have so far been unable to unanimously commit to achieving climate neutrality by mid-century. They will try again to reach an agreement at the summit that will take place on December 12 and 13, for which it will be necessary to get Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic to join the rest of the partners.

Source: The Vanguard