EU leaders fail to agree on 2050 climate goal as nations dependant on fossil-fuel vote against plan for carbon neutral economy
- 24 countries including Britain, France and Germany supported the initiative, but were held back by Poland and a few other nations
European Union leaders have failed to back a plan to make the bloc’s economy carbon neutral by 2050 in spite of promises to fight harder against climate change.
Ahead of a UN meeting in the fall, the proposal was relegated to a non-binding footnote in the final statement of Thursday’s summit of EU leaders in Brussels.
“For a large majority of Member States, climate neutrality must be achieved by 2050,” the footnote read.
However, for the change in approach to become an official target, all 28 EU countries need to back the change.
According to several officials who spoke anonymously as they were not authorised to speak publicly, 24 countries including Britain, France and Germany supported the initiative, but were held back by Poland and a few other nations which heavily depend on a fossil-fuel economy.
Environmental group Greenpeace said European leaders blew the chance to agree a deal and called on the EU to organise an emergency meeting before the UN summit in New York in September.