EU Likely to Overshoot Greenhouse Gasses (GHG) Targets
quietus writes:
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% (a206 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 a1134,6 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.
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