The European Union has not yet won over countries seeking more cash and conditions in exchange for committing to sharper emissions cuts, as it tries to strike a deal on on its new climate target by the end of the year.
Environmental News For The Week Ending 20December 2019
This is a collection of interesting news articles about the environment and related topics published last week. This is usually a Tuesday evening regular post at
GEI (but can be posted at other times).
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Note: Because of the high volume of news regarding the coronavirus outbreak, that news has been published separately:
Some of the COVID-19 graphics presented in the above articles have been updated below.
Also, mentioned in two articles near the end of the disease collection is that there is a new strain of the virus circulating in southeast England that is 70% more infectious than the common strain. Since these news collections were assembled, England has locked down London and several European countries have restricted travelers from the country. I expect that we ll have more news on that in this coming week.
3 Min Read
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union has not yet won over countries seeking more cash and conditions in exchange for committing to sharper emissions cuts, as it tries to strike a deal on on its new climate target by the end of the year.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
The EU has promised to make a tougher emissions-cutting target this year under the Paris climate accord, a move U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said is “essential” to global efforts to avoid catastrophic climate change.
The aim is for leaders of the 27-nation EU, which is the world’s third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, to endorse the new goal at a summit on Dec. 10-11.
EU heads of states have agreed on a 55% reduction target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but the inclusion of carbon sinks and the choice of 1990 as the baseline year have led environmentalists to criticise the deal for lacking ambition.
When EU leaders agreed a new climate goal for 2030 on Friday morning after a night of marathon talks, there was a smell of victory in the air.
“Kudos to the EU for pulling the future into the present, with huge benefits for people, planet and profit,” said Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
By CHEN WEIHUA in Brussels | China Daily | Updated: 2020-12-14 07:45 Share CLOSE European Council President Charles Michel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (center) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel leave an EU summit in Brussels on Friday. EUROPEAN UNION/XINHUA
European Union leaders have applauded a hard-won agreement to cut carbon emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030, a target that still falls short of expectations of environmental groups and lawmakers.
After lengthy haggling, leaders of the EU s 27 member states, at a summit in Brussels, reached agreement early on Friday to raise the bloc s carbon emissions reduction goal for 2030 to net 55 percent from the current goal of 40 percent from the 1990 levels.