Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Sunday September 01 2019, @10:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the they-said-it-couldn't-be-done dept.

In March 2007, the EU set itself some ambitious climate targets.

By 2020, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions should be 20 percent below 1990 levels, renewable energy should make up 20% of the energy mix, and the share of it in the transport sector should be up by 10 percent.

A briefing [PDF] to the EU Parliament now shows those targets are about to be beaten, by a margin.

GHG emissions, including those of air traffic, had already decreased 22 percent by 2017. The share of renewable energy sources had risen, by 2016, to 17%.

Interestingly, the drop in GHG emission intensity, the ratio of GHG emissions to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), is even more pronounced. One euro in GDP, in 2017, compared to 315g carbon dioxide: half the level of 1990. Between 1990 and 2017, the combined GDP of the EU increased by 58% while total GHG emissions fell by 22%.

The figures mentioned do not include GHG emissions through land use. According to the briefing, the EU's land absorbs more carbon than it emits; member states are bound by regulation to at least preserve this situation. Of the 28 member states, 25 now have developed climate change adaptation plans, including measures like using less water, adapting building regulations, building flood defenses, developing crops that cope better in drought conditions etcetera.

For the period 2014-2020, the EU had vowed to spend at least 20% (€206 billion) of its budget to climate change measures. That target was already reached in 2017. For the 2021-2027 period, the European Commission proposed to increase that level to 25% of a €1134,6 billion overall budget.

Under current trends, the EU's GHG emission levels will have dropped by 30% by 2030. The new target set by the European Commission, though, is a drop of at least 40 percent, while the share of renewable energy should be 32%. Combined with a 32% increase in overall energy efficiency, this should result in a 45% drop in GHG emissions. Parliament itself proposes an even more ambitious target of 55 percent GHG emission reductions by 2030.

Under the 2011 Energy Roadmap, the 2050 target was a reduction of 80% in GHG emission levels compared to 1990. In November 2018, that target was changed to zero percent GHG emissions, through a socially fair transition in a cost-efficient manner.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 01 2019, @10:31PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 01 2019, @10:31PM (#888625)

    "Greenhouse asses," a term that came up when Trump asked his Cabinet to come up with their own names. In other words, Trump's cabinet is comprised of folks who have already worked at the EPA, a group known to be anti-green.

    The president also asked a question about climate change while speaking to a joint session of Congress. Not only has he not mentioned the subject much during his brief time in office, he hasn't made it a campaign issue, as Hillary Clinton and most Republican nominee Donald Trump have done, even claiming that climate change is a hoax. It's notable that Trump went to the same conference as the vice president, Mike Pence.

    Trump's Cabinet is a far cry from the coal era, when EPA had a total budget of over $3 billion – including money from the Clean Water Protection Act, a massive anti-pollution law. And while the EPA has been under attack, with Trump's EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, it hasn't been done so much on its own but instead under the auspices of the Office of Management and Budget

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   -1  
       Troll=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Troll' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   -1  
  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday September 01 2019, @11:03PM (4 children)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday September 01 2019, @11:03PM (#888636) Homepage

    Europe has third-world filth streaming through its borders, its most magnificent utopian cities have become little Mogadishus rife with fires, grenade strikes, and other brutal crimes happening on a daily basis; but never fear, rest-of-the-world! We are throwing the lives of our citizens away to institute lifelong welfare for 80-IQ savages and fighting climate-change!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 01 2019, @11:16PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 01 2019, @11:16PM (#888640)

      Was it liberated by the US? I didn't know they found oil in Brussels... Does put Freedom Fries in a more reasonable context though.

      • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday September 01 2019, @11:30PM

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday September 01 2019, @11:30PM (#888648) Homepage

        We found something better: Methane gas, caused by Brussels-sprouts farts. We found an alternative to oil that's like liquid natural gas, only better. Better than Texas livestock pastures, in fact.

    • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 01 2019, @11:24PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 01 2019, @11:24PM (#888643)

      Why stop there! Lets get into the madness of treating politicalized science as real! Take a look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEWoPzaDmOA [youtube.com] and debunk the argument that all of the ass-umptions behind climate science rest on the exclusion of realities .. just as those policies made for people scoring @80 wechslers just for the sake of having more wars elsewhere. So, hey, if you start critiquing Brusselian dictates, why not go all the way?

      • (Score: 2) by aiwarrior on Monday September 02 2019, @07:43AM

        by aiwarrior (1812) on Monday September 02 2019, @07:43AM (#888764) Journal

        Debunkers passing videos on Youtube is almost a membership card of a crackpot society. I did not downvote. I just leave my heuristic for others to consider.