European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker urged the European Union on Wednesday (12 September) to raise its goals for limiting climate change, but did not mention the forthcoming 2050 strategy. EURACTIV’s partner Climate Home News reports.
Juncker threw his weight behind a politically contentious push to raise the EU’s emissions reduction goal but did not spell out the details.
“I agree with our energy Commissioner’s analysis of the CO2 emissions cut for 2030,” Juncker said in his final State of the European Union address in Strasbourg. “They’re scientifically right and politically necessary.”
However, he did not mention the proposed numbers, or give any preview of the European Commission’s forthcoming draft climate strategy for 2050.
Miguel Arias Cañete, the climate action and energy Commissioner, said in June that the European Union would begin the process of upping the bloc’s existing goal to reduce emissions by at least 40% compared to 1990 levels.
“We as Europeans want to leave a cleaner planet for future generations,” Juncker said. “The terrible events of this summer have brought home — not just to farmers — the importance of our efforts to safeguard the future of our coming generations.”
The EU’s 40% target was agreed in 2014, a year before the Paris Agreement, and was intended to align with a 2C global warming limit. As the world’s third-largest emitter, Europe is under international pressure to hike its targets for 2030 and 2050, to match the Paris deal’s stretch goal of holding temperature rise to 1.5C.
Cañete argued that the bloc’s newly agreed measures for boosting clean energy and efficiency between 2021 and 2030 allow for a higher emissions reduction target.
But there is still resistance from some member countries. Poland, which presides over this year’s Cop24 summit, has said that the EU should focus on meeting the existing measures first. German chancellor Angela Merkel also expressed displeasure on ARD public television in August.
“At the moment I am not very happy regarding these new proposals since many member states are already today failing to comply with what they promised — and people are not going to accept that,” she said.
By my count, climate change has got more mentions in the first 10 minutes of this #SOTEU than in all of the last one
— Sam Morgan (@SamJamesMorgan) September 12, 2018
Juncker hinted at the opposition: “Some may choose to ignore the climate challenge and look the other way,” he said. “We in the Commission and you in parliament must look to the future.”
He also argued that the EU needs to take firm action to ban single-use plastics, rather simply showing “good intention,” in order to win public trust ahead of the European elections next year.
Environmental advocates were hoping Juncker would give an update on the Commission’s 2050 strategy proposal and express support for a goal that fits with a temperature limit of 1.5C.
“Juncker rightly recognised the damage that climate change is already inflicting on European citizens,” tweeted Jonathan Gaventa, director at the environmental think-tank E3G. “But while climate was a theme in the speech, it is notably absent from the deluge of Commission press releases with new announcements.”
Positions
BirdLife Europe’s reaction to Juncker’s SOTEU speech: “We welcome President Juncker recognising that climate action is an area where the EU can and must make a difference. Unfortunately, his speech confirms once again that the collapse of the ecosystem has never been on his radar.
"The consistent failure to properly reform the Common Agriculture Policy, continuing the self-defeating bioenergy policy, and depriving biodiversity conservation of appropriate funding are all betrayals of the generations for which Juncker says he wants to leave a healthier planet.”