Cli­mate change: Parliament’s blue­print for long-term CO2 cuts

MEPs out­lined their ideas on the EU’s long-term emis­sions reduc­tion strategy, in a res­ol­u­tion adop­ted on Thursday. In a non-bind­ing res­ol­u­tion, adop­ted with 369 votes to 116 and 40 absten­tions, MEPs say that only two of the eight scen­ari­os (“path­ways”) pro­posed by the European Com­mis­sion in its Novem­ber com­mu­nic­a­tion would enable the EU to reach net-zero green­house gas (GHG) emis­sions by 2050, the com­mit­ment made by the EU under the Par­is cli­mate agree­ment. They sup­port the Com­mis­sion in push­ing for these two scen­ari­os. Par­lia­ment also voices sup­port for the demon­stra­tions, in par­tic­u­lar in the form of cli­mate marches and school strikes that are rais­ing aware­ness of these cli­mate risks. MEPs ask nation­al, region­al and loc­al gov­ern­ments, as well as the EU, to take con­crete and swift action in order not to over­shoot the 1.5°C cli­mate lim­it. MEPs stress that in order to reach net-zero GHG emis­sions in 2050 in the most cost-effi­cient man­ner, the 2030 ambi­tion level will need to be raised. The EU must there­fore send a clear mes­sage that it stands ready to review its con­tri­bu­tion to the Par­is Agree­ment, they say. Sup­port for regions most affected by decar­bon­isa­tion If handled well, with the appro­pri­ate sup­port for the most vul­ner­able regions, sec­tors and cit­izens, the trans­ition towards net-zero GHG emis­sions can poten­tially cre­ate 2.1 mil­lion addi­tion­al jobs by 2050 in the EU, say MEPs. A ​“just trans­ition fund” should be cre­ated to sup­port the regions most affected by decar­bon­isa­tion, such as coal min­ing regions, they say. The EU’s net-zero strategy should pri­or­it­ise dir­ect emis­sions reduc­tions and enhan­cing nat­ur­al car­bon sinks and reser­voirs (such as forests) over car­bon remov­al tech­no­lo­gies, that have yet to be deployed on a large scale and would entail sig­ni­fic­ant risks for eco­sys­tems, biod­iversity and food secur­ity. Invest­ing in cir­cu­lar and bio-eco­nomy MEPs con­sider that the trans­ition towards a net-zero GHG eco­nomy also presents sig­ni­fic­ant oppor­tun­it­ies. Invest­ment in indus­tri­al innov­a­tion, includ­ing digit­al tech­no­lo­gies and clean tech­no­logy, is needed to improve growth, com­pet­it­ive­ness and cre­ate jobs e.g. in a grow­ing cir­cu­lar eco­nomy and bio-eco­nomy. MEPs also under­line the import­ance of hav­ing a pre­dict­able energy and cli­mate policy to encour­age long-term invest­ment. Finally, MEPs reit­er­ate the Parliament’s pos­i­tion to alloc­ate at least 35 % of the expendit­ure on research (Hori­zon Europe) to sup­port cli­mate object­ives. Back­ground Parties to the Par­is Agree­ment are invited to com­mu­nic­ate, by 2020, their mid-cen­tury, long-term low GHG emis­sion devel­op­ment strategies. In the Com­mu­nic­a­tion ​“A Clean Plan­et for all” adop­ted on 28 Novem­ber 2018, the Com­mis­sion presen­ted its stra­tegic, long-term vis­ion for a cli­mate-neut­ral eco­nomy by 2050, includ­ing eight pos­sible path­ways. The Com­mu­nic­a­tion presents options, allow­ing for a thor­ough debate on the way for­ward to 2050. This debate should allow the EU to adopt and sub­mit an ambi­tious strategy by 2020 to the UNFC­CC as well as set the dir­ec­tion of the EU’s future cli­mate and energy policy. Source: European Par­liamanet, press release, 14.03.2019