EUROPEAN Commissioners want to wipe out carbon dioxide, or CO2 emissions by the year 2050, according to an ambitious announcement ahead of the recent climate change summit (COP24) in Katowice, Poland. But is it even feasible – and how will Spain fare?
Former agriculture minister under the previous PP government, Miguel Arias Cañete – and now European Commissioner for Energy and Climate – says: “We can do it.
“And if we're successful, others will follow. If we don't lead, nobody else will do it. And if nobody acts, uncontrolled climate change will affect Europe and the rest of the world severely.”
But Arias Cañete admits: “There are many challenges along the way.
“Yet, with climate change, doing what we've always done is no longer an option, and we cannot afford the price of inaction.”
The Commission aims to 'radically transform' Europe's energy systems, farming practices, transport networks, town and city planning, and industry in a bid to cease being responsible for 10% of the world's toxic emissions.
Of the seven billion inhabitants of this planet, one-fourteenth – or half a billion – live in the EU-28, and it is forecast that the bloc's population will rise by 30%, to 650 million, by the year 2050, meaning its emissions will be even greater by then if action is not taken; already, the Union's contribution to world pollution is disproportionately high for the number of people living in it.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com