Friends of the Earth Europe, together with nine of our allies, has today urged the European Union to make rapid progress on reducing Europe’s carbon emissions.
In a letter to the President of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, the Green 10 coalition of the largest environmental networks active at EU level, says, “the credibility of Europe’s response to the challenges of fighting climate change and building a sustainable energy system is at stake”.
“Your intervention is now required urgently to re-establish a firm European policy on climate change and energy.”
Our message to Europe’s leaders was echoed in Germany where Friends of the Earth Germany and partner organisations staged protests calling on Chancellor Angela Merkel to support at least 30% cuts in Europe’s emissions by 2020.
The coalition will organise a range of activities throughout Germany to remind Chancellor Merkel and other members of her government that stepping up to 30% cuts at EU level is vital to achieving the German 40% national target by 2020. First positive impacts of this campaign can already be felt and Ms Merkel recently stated that she wants to see further EU talks about the ambition level of emission reduction targets.
Europe’s Environment Ministers met in March but failed to agree on more ambitious climate targets for 2020, 2030, and 2050. It was the second time that Poland vetoed higher targets.
The European Commissioner for climate action, Connie Hedegaard, asked Heads of State to take up the issue of emissions reductions but so far climate is missing from the agenda of their next meeting in June. The Green 10 letter stresses the importance of green investments and climate targets being discussed at the highest level.
Germany, together with the UK and France, have since requested more discussions about the topic at the next EU Summit in June.
Friends of the Earth Europe believes Europe needs to reduce emissions at home by at least 40 per cent by 2020, and by close to 100% cuts by 2050. We have shown that EU wide greenhouse gas emission reductions of this scale are indeed possible.
Stockholm Environment Institute produced a report for Friends of the Earth Europe which shows that 40% emissions reductions by 2020 are technically feasible and economically viable. Friends of the Earth Europe is campaigning for fair emission cuts, the scale of which reflect historical responsibility for causing climate change.
Domestic emission reductions by 30% up to 2020 are a first important step towards 40% by 2020. This is the minimum scale of cuts needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and give development space to the poorest in the South.
