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\nThe European Parliament has shown support for a climate target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent by 2030 from the 1990 levels, according to the voting results announced by the parliament.
\nIn the plenary voting late on Tuesday, the new target was approved with 352 votes in favor, 326 against, and 18 abstentions, within the framework of voting amendments to the proposed European Climate Law.
\n\u201cWe are more than ever leading on climate ambition,\u201d tweeted Wednesday the chair of the parliament\u2019s environment committee Pascal Canfin, who submitted the specific amendment.
\nThe rapporteur said that the parliament sent \u201ca strong signal\u201d to work faster toward climate neutrality, adding that the first ten years are crucial if the European Union (EU) wants to respect the Paris Agreement.
\nOther important clauses put to vote on Tuesday afternoon were climate neutrality by 2050 becoming binding, continuing to work on CO2 emission negativity after 2050, establishing a greenhouse gas budget, setting a new intermediate target for 2040 after assessment and establishing a European Climate Change Council (ECCC).
\nThe ECCC will complement the work of global and national similar bodies and evaluate progress at the European level, said Guteland. Independent experts working together with the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen will be hired, using data from EU member states, to provide the EU with feedback on their progress.
\nThe voting came three weeks after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen set the target of 55 percent emission cut by 2030 in her State of the Union speech and two weeks after China announced that it aims to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
\n\u201cDo we have allies in this task? Yes, we do,\u201d said the commission\u2019s Vice-President Maros Sefcovic on Tuesday when addressing the plenary on behalf of von der Leyen, who was at the time in self-quarantine for precaution against COVID-19. Besides China, Sefcovic also mentioned South Africa which will aim at carbon neutrality by 2050.
\nSelling the commission\u2019s plans, Sefcovic said the EU must preserve its first mover advantage. \u201cWe must step up our climate ambition if we want the best green technologies to be European technologies,\u201d he added.
\nMore voting sessions are scheduled later on Wednesday on the European Climate Law, initially proposed by the commission in March this year. The Council of the EU has yet to make its decision before the draft is finally adopted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TLTP BRUSSELS The European Parliament has shown support for a climate target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent by 2030 from the 1990 levels, according to the voting results announced by the parliament. In the plenary voting late on Tuesday, the new target was approved with 352 votes in favor, 326 against, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n