– If a proposal appears, we will conduct a discussion without undue delay. But the European Commission still did not show the final legislative proposal – said Minister Paulina Hennig -Kloska at Tuesday press conference. The head of the ministry answered questions after the meeting of the informal council for the environment, which Poland is host within the EU presidency.
At a meeting in Warsaw, the ministers for the environment from 27 European Union countries talked, among others, about climate disinformation, the use of new technologies and adaptation to progressive climate change. – Last year, we felt the effects of climate change, including During the floods that hit Europe in autumn. They touched about 413,000 people, and at the same time we were struggling with extreme drought – said the minister of climate and the environment.
In the formal agency of the meeting – as in the Energy Council scheduled for May – there is no one of the most important topics of the EU climate policy currently, i.e. establishing the purpose of reducing emissions for 2040. Although the topic was to be discussed some time ago, the division among countries and parliamentarians delays the presentation of a specific proposal, informs Reuters.
Dispute about the target 2040
The European Union has its climate right, according to which, by 2050, our greenhouse gas emissions are to fall to the level of zero net. An indirect goal was also set for 2030 – a decrease by 55 percent. According to the previously adopted regulations, we must now set another indirect goal for 2040.
The EU Scientific Advisory Body for Climate Change in 2023 estimated that the Union must cut emissions by 90-95 percent. By 2040, to meet your own long -term goals. At the beginning of 2024, the European Commission (even before the election to the European Parliament) she initially proposed to establish the goal at Dolna border What scientists propose – that is, cutting emissions by 90 percent. Later elections and formation of a new committee stopped work on the goal, and this was imposed on the growing opposition from some political forces towards ambitious climate policy.
At Tuesday's conference, Paulina Hennig -Kloska reminded that last year – during the Hungarian presidency – there were voices calling for “greater flexibility”. – However, the commission has not yet submitted a document – she said and added that this may have been related to the lack of a common position of EU countries.
Finland for, Italy against
Setting a goal at 90 % supports, among others Finland. Mika Nykänen, Secretary of State for climate, talked about this quoted by Reuters. “We think it's a good goal,” he told journalists during the Summit in Warsaw. He added that withdrawing from previously declared goals introduces uncertainty and makes the Union a less attractive place to invest.
Next to Finland, 90 % He supports, among others, Denmark, the Netherlands and Slovenia. On the other side there are, among others, Italy and the Czech Republic. The Czech Minister of the Environment Petr Hladík said that “for now” they do not decide to support the goal due to concerns about the impact on the heavy industry. Estonia He believes that he can cut emissions by 80 percent. by 2040, but anything above depends on the technology of absorbing dioxide rod. Germany's voice can be the key, where a new government is being created.
In order for the proposal to have a chance to accept, the European Commission is trying to adapt it to the fears of the countries. As the website described Politicoone of the ideas is the use of “creative accounting”. That is, leaving 90 %, but to change the way it is calculated and, for example, permission to include in the domestic purpose of reducing “bought” in other countries in the form of so -called loans coal (in a simplified way – for example, Poland pays Indonesia so that it does not cut the forest, which prevents CO2 emissions).
Another proposal concerns the permission to “postpone” the emission reduction part – slower cutting of greenhouse gases in the early 1930s, and faster closer to 2040. Still another – focusing more on CO2 absorption by forests and special devices. The latter on paper may sound good, but absorption through forests may limit the effects of climate change (like fires), and commercially available and sufficiently cheap CO2 absorption technologies we still do not have.
Other proposals also raise doubts. Delayed reduction in the 1930s means that in total more pollution will go to the atmosphere. Buying coal loans He is burdened with a lot of potential threats (because what is the guarantee that the forest saved today will not be cut out in 20 years?).
Urgent climatic activities
Europe is – as the Polish minister mentioned at a press conference – the fastest warming continent in the world. Last year was record -recorded in the world, and the greenhouse gas emission record was also broken.
Less than 10 years ago, virtually all countries agreed in a climate agreement signed in Paris that they would strive to stop global warming at a level well below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably – at 1.5 degrees. However, this more ambitious limit can be exceeded in the coming years, and if the world does not speed up moving into oil, coal and gas, insulation will be up to 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century – with fatal consequences.