As the European Commission prepares to present its vision for a long-term climate strategy for the EU on 28 November, the NGO CAN Europe (Climate Action Network Europe) welcomed on Tuesday 20 November the initiative taken by ten countries to invite the institution to set ‘a clear direction towards zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050’.
This concerns Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden, whose ministers for the environment, climate, energy and ecological transition wrote a letter to the Commissioner for Climate and Energy Action, Miguel Arias Cañete, on 14 November.
This letter “will put pressure on the Commission to clearly recommend this option, giving it primacy over the other two totally inadequate options,”said Wendel Trio, director of the NGO, in a statement.
According to the draft text that leaked in October, the Commission would set out three scenarios for the time being: - 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the lower part of the range it had established as an indication in its 2014 roadmap as a long-term objective (80% - 95%); zero net emissions in 2070; zero net emissions in 2050 (see EUROPE 12112).
Last June, these same ministers were part of the group of 14 countries that wanted the EU to announce at COP 24 an increase in its 2030 target and were already advocating a zero emission strategy by 2050. Germany, Belgium, Estonia and the United Kingdom have not signed the last letter (see EUROPE 12148). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)