EU: the target of carbon neutrality by 2050 is now a law. The EU Council approves too.

The goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is a EU law: after the EU Parliament’s adoption of the regulation on June 24th, today the EU Council approved it too. “Reaching agreement on the European climate regulation has been a priority of the Portuguese presidency, and I am glad to have achieved this target”, Portuguese Environment Minister João Pedro Matos Fernandes stated. Apart from carbon neutrality and the goal to achieve negative emissions after 2050, the European regulation lays down the target of reducing net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% of 1990’s levels by 2030. That’s why it sets the limit of 225 million tons of CO₂ by 2030, which is equivalent to the contribution of gas absorptions to achieve such goal. In addition, the EU Commission might enforce an interim climate goal by 2040 and will publish a forecast of the EU approximate greenhouse gas emission budget for 2030-2050, in other words “the approximate total volume of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (in CO₂ equivalent, inclusive of separate emission and absorption figures) which are expected to be released in such time without impairing the obligations undertaken by the European Union under the Paris Agreement”. Moreover, a European scientific advisory board on climate change will be set up in accordance with new climate regulation.
Valentina Bombelli