EU to enshrine net-zero goals
EU leaders on Wednesday reached an agreement to lay out and enshrine into law the bloc's tactics for achieving its goals of complete carbon neutrality by 2050.
This news comes one day after the UK pledged to set far more ambitious climate goals as analysts predict current initiatives may not be enough to prevent global temperatures rising by 2°C by the mid-century on the eve of a climate summit hosted by US President Joe Biden.
Read more: EC hopes to slash EU greenhouse emissions by 55% by 2030
Last September, EC President Ursula von der Leyen announced the bloc's plans to cut outgoing carbon emissions by 55% on 1990 levels by 2030.
According to a statement released by the Commission, the EU is also opting into the option of becoming carbon-negative through various means once their net-zero goals are met.
The current aim of the climate goals is to favour carbon emissions reductions over removals.
In order to ensure that sufficient efforts to reduce and prevent emissions are deployed until 2030, they introduced a limit of 225 Mt of CO2 equivalent to the contribution of removals to the net target.
The new climate law needs to be confirmed by both the European Parliament and Council before it can come into effect.
In a statement, João Pedro Matos Fernandes the Minister of Environment and Climate Action revealed that Parliament was "very pleased" with the provisional deal reached today, adding that the European climate law is "the law of laws" that sets the frame for the EU's climate-related legislation for the decades to come.
He said: "The EU is strongly committed to becoming climate neutral by 2050 and today we can be proud to have set in stone an ambitious climate goal that can get everyone's support.
"With this agreement, we send a strong signal to the world - right ahead of the Leader's Climate Summit on 22 April - and pave the way for the Commission to propose its "fit-for-55" climate package in June."
Read more: UK set to raise emissions targets
Other elements of the agreement include the founding of an independent scientific board on climate change comprised of 15 senior scientific experts of different nationalities.
This board will be tasked with providing scientific advice and reporting on EU measures, climate targets and indicative greenhouse gas budgets and their coherence with the European climate law and the EU's international commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement.
The negotiators also agreed that the Commission would propose an intermediate climate target for 2040, if appropriate after the first stocktake carried out under the terms of the Paris Agreement.
EC Executive vice-president Frans Timmermans described the deal as a "landmark moment for the EU," saying the outlined agreement will shape EU policy for at least the next 30 years.
The plans for the European Green Deal have been known since at least 2019, which outlined the overall goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.
How to achieve these aims has been a contentious topic within the bloc, as many were unsure on how to properly achieve these aims.
Read more: How industrial innovation can drive the European Green Deal
However, it finally appears as if the EU have a clear-cut goal as to how to achieve their ambitions.
President von der Leyen "warmly welcomed" the news of the climate law.
The deal also lays out plans to negotiate with sectors of the economy that choose to prepare indicative voluntary roadmaps towards achieving the Union’s climate neutrality objective by 2050.
The Commission is set to monitor the development of such roadmaps, facilitate the dialogue at EU-level, and share best practices among relevant stakeholders.
Read more: EU plans to delay decision of green label for gas projects
The state of nuclear power in the EU Green Deal is still something of an unknown variable. Many critics say it may be impossible to achieve the net-zero aims without the construction of nuclear energy sources - which is often far more concentrated and is capable of significant energy capacity.
There is also the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is nearing completion, which will see natural gas from Russia get access to Europe through the line running under the Baltic Sea.
Natural gas is less polluting than other fossil fuels such as oil and coal, but its removal will still be necessary for achieving net-zero emissions. Phasing it out will also be essential if the EU wish to move into the realm of negative emissions.
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