By Paul Homewood

MADRID — The European Union said Wednesday that it will likely miss its target for reducing greenhouse gases by 2030, dealing a blow to the bloc’s efforts to be a leader in the fight against climate change.

The European Environment Agency said existing measures put the EU on course to cut its emissions of carbon dioxide and other planet-warming pollutants by 30% in the next decade compared with 1990 levels.

Currently, the 28-nation bloc is aiming for a reduction of 40% by 2030, and some leaders have called for this target to be raised to 55%, with a long-term goal of ending virtually all new emissions by 2050.

“Recent trends highlight a slowing down of progress in areas such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, industrial emissions, waste generation, improving energy efficiency and the share of renewable energy,” the agency said in a report. “Looking ahead, the current rate of progress will not be enough to meet 2030 and 2050 climate and energy targets.”

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/12/04/business/ap-climate-talks.html

As we are rapidly finding out in the UK, it is one thing setting targets for twenty years time, it is another actually achieving them when the time comes.

By then, of course, those who set the targets are long gone.

Both here and in the EU, the low hanging fruit has been picked, albeit at obscene cost. Phasing out of coal power, to be replaced by gas and small amounts of heavily subsidised renewables is not that clever.

But to make the next transition is another story, involving decarbonising heat and transport, dealing with industrial emissions and running power grids with a high proportion of intermittent renewable energy.

None of these can be achieved without radically altering citizens’ lifestyles and standards of living.

The saner nations of Eastern Europe have already worked this out. Now there are signs other are waking up.

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

https://ift.tt/2PhsqFi

December 4, 2019 at 12:03PM