European Parliament demands EU governments do more to prevent climate catastrophe

MEPs have just voted to call on EU governments and the European Commission to heed the warnings of recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and increase their ambitions to reduce CO2 emissions from 40% to 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, ahead of the UN climate summit in December 2018, in Katowice, Poland.
 
Bas Eickhout, climate policy spokesperson for the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, comments:
 
"After the IPCC report the European Parliament is now sounding the alarm and calling on EU governments to raise the climate targets for 2030 to a 55% reduction in CO2. Today's vote is a clear criticism of current climate policy and a strong mandate for EU environment ministers and the European Commission to act. Our current EU climate targets are not sufficient enough to achieve the Paris targets. The European contribution to combating climate collapse must be significantly greater.
 
"The EU Commission must take up this demand in its decarbonisation strategy, which will be presented shortly before the climate summit in Katowice, Poland. As one of the world's largest economic blocs, the European Union must play an leading role in climate negotiations and must not be content with small steps towards climate protection".