2050 – objective: climate neutrality
Europe is aiming to reach its objective of climate neutrality by the year 2050, as part of its leading role in a new process towards global sustainability. Guidelines on this issue have been set out in a document signed by the Vice President of the European Commission as well as Vice President of the Commission for the Energy Union.
The European Commissioner for Energy and Climate Action presented the document in November 2018 and emphasised the need for an approach to climate change which places economic growth first and ecological and ideological aspects second. The document highlights how disasters caused by climate change have caused damage totalling over 280 billion euros.
Emphasis is also placed on the need to implement the transition, which is already underway, towards an energy model based on renewables. The target is to cut fossil fuel imports from 55% to 20%, resulting in a saving of up to 3 trillion Euros in the years after 2030.
In order to reach these targets and achieve the objective of climate neutrality, all sectors must be involved, starting with infrastructures for the production and distribution of energy, approximately 80% of which should be from renewable sources by 2030.
How much investment will be required?
According to European leaders in Brussels, climate neutrality cannot be achieved on good will alone. It will require extra investment, in addition to that already been planned. This investment is expected to rise from 175 to 290 billion Euros per year. Such an increase would however be compensated in a relatively short time thanks by a reduction in the costs of importing fossil fuels.
What strategy will be adopted?
Sefcovic’s document provides guidelines, but no specific strategy. In order to define one, a global discussion must be undertaken, taking into consideration initiatives already in place. First, there are the measures set out in the Paris Agreement (COP21), which established the target of maintaining the global temperature increase well below the 2°C threshold.
Regarding the definition of a strategy for climate neutrality, the document refers to various macro areas for intervention, as follows:
- Energy efficiency;
- Deployment of renewables;
- Connected mobility, which is also safe and clean;
- Competitive industry;
- Circular economy;
- Infrastructures;
- Interconnections;
- Natural carbon;
- Storage and capture of carbon emissions.
These proposals will be discussed in more depth next May 9th, when European leaders are due to meet to define the Old Continent’s road map before the next elections.
The importance of testing procedures
In order to achieve the objective of climate neutrality (net-zero carbon dioxide emissions) by the year 2050, testing procedures on these emissions play a vital role. So far, all this has been dealt with in laboratories.
Following the automotive scandal, which highlighted the risk that emission data may be altered with the use of specific software, the European Parliament decreed that tests must be carried out outside the laboratory environment, in other words in authentic urban environments. This approach is expected to be implemented by 2023.
Social impact
The journey towards climate neutrality, which will involve moving away from a system based on carbon dioxide emissions towards a model based on electrical power implies a shift of balance in several areas, including economic and occupational aspects.
In order to avoid negative social consequences, the European Parliament has requested that European member states undertake a drive towards the promotion of new competences and the redistribution of workers employed in carbon-intensive industries, whose skills may not currently be compatible with sustainability.
Translated by Joanne Beckwith
