Why in the News?
The European Union-the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world after China and the United States, has announced an additional measures to reduce carbon emission. It has been named as the “European Green Deal”.
What are the targets?
The European Green Deal has following four objectives:
- Become climate-neutral by 2050 ,
- Protect human life, animals and plants, by cutting pollution,
- Help companies become world leaders in clean products and technologies, and
- Help ensure a just and inclusive transition.
The above objectives mean that the EU’s climate ambition for 2030, with a 50-55% cut in greenhouse gas emissions to replace the current 40% objective to 1990 levels. The 55% figure will be subject to a cost-benefit analysis. The European Commission will propose a European Climate Law turning the political commitment into a legal obligation and a trigger for investment.
Implementation
The EU will achieve the objectives through following measures:
- Decarbonise the energy sector: The production and use of energy account for more than 75% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions.
- Renovate buildings, to help people cut their energy bills and energy use: 40%of EU energy consumption is by buildings.
- Support industry to innovate and to become global leaders in the green economy: European industry only uses 12% recycled materials.
- Roll out cleaner, cheaper and healthier forms of private and public transport: Transport represents 25% of our emissions
What is Carbon neutrality?
- Carbon neutrality is a balance between emitting carbon and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere in carbon sinks.
- Removing carbon oxide from the atmosphere and then storing it is known as carbon sequestration.
- In order to achieve net zero emissions, all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions will have to be counterbalanced by carbon sequestration. Carbon sink is any system that absorbs more carbon than it emits.
- The main natural carbon sinks are soil, forests and oceans. According to estimates, natural sinks remove between 9.5 and 11 Gt of CO2 per year.
- Annual global CO2 emissions reached 37.1 Gt in 2017. To date, no artificial carbon sinks are able to remove carbon from the atmosphere on the necessary scale to fight global warming.
- The carbon stored in natural sinks such as forests is released into the atmosphere through forest fires, changes in land use or logging. This is why it is essential to reduce carbon emissions in order to reach climate neutrality. (Source: European Union)
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