EU 2050 Climate Target Blocked by Eastern Nations (Financial Times)
Simone Tagliapietra, FEEM researcher, quoted in an article of the Financial Times on EU energy system by 2050.
Abstract
In the EU meeting held in Brussels last Thursday national leaders failed to reach an agreement to target neutral climate emissions in the EU by 2050.
While Western and Nordic states call for more ambitious action on the climate, central and eastern European countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary and Poland) worry about the pace of change required to adapt and balance the social and economic adjustments to meet the targets. Climate has become a key political issue in Europe. Arriving empty handed at the UN climate conference in September could undermine the EU bloc’s claim to be a leader in taking action on climate change and make it more difficult to put pressure on China and other countries to do more.
According to Simone Tagliapietra, senior researcher at FEEM and research fellow at the Bruegel think tank, the EU needs to take concrete committments as “choices made up to 2024 will define the shape of the EU energy system by 2050.”