MY TWO CENTS:
EU needs a 7.7% decrease of the CO2 emissions for 10 years in a row. They've never even done that for ONE year. Nuclear and lower-emissions energy sources will be allowed.
Will half the car owners have to replace their cars with electric cars by 2030, or stop driving?
Wind and solar power will make electricity a lot more expensive, to pay for the new infrastructure, and the electricity it produces. None of this will increase EU wealth and industrial production. At least Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler tried to do that !
Ye Editor
"Europe will surge ahead with its effort to stamp out greenhouse gas emissions and climate change in this decade, after a hard-fought deal among EU leaders on Friday.
... A final deal still needs to be hammered out with the European Parliament, which wants a 60 percent cut.
... every EU member agreed to raise the bloc's emissions reduction goal for 2030 to net 55 percent from the current target of 40 percent.
... "The 2030 deal was a “great way to celebrate" the first anniversary of the European Green Deal and its vision to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted just after the deal was struck on Friday morning (Dec. 11)."
The 2030 commitment comes a day before a U.N. climate summit, where the EU will announce the new goal, establishing the bloc's claim to lead the world in the fight to stop the planet warming. It also avoids the embarrassment of turning up empty-handed.
... The new target will require a comprehensive remaking of Europe’s economy across every sector and the work must begin now.
Brussels will launch an avalanche of legislative proposals by next June to update everything from national emissions reduction and renewables targets to CO2 standards for cars, energy taxation and forestry.
Negotiations on the Climate Law — presented in March to make the bloc’s climate neutrality goal by 2050 legally binding — will now swing into high gear.
... Romanian President Klaus Iohannis tweeted Friday morning that the new 2030 goal "will modernize the European Union's economies and improve the lives of European citizens.”
He added that “Romania has ensured that its interests are covered, including ... the use of gas in the transition process.” The final deal makes it possible for countries to use nuclear power and natural gas to replace dirtier fossil fuels, by allowing "transitional technologies such as gas."
That concession will shape political battles over how much the EU invests in natural gas in the coming years.
The 2030 goal will be delivered by the bloc collectively — that means no easing of the years-long battle over how fast each country must cut down its pollution.
... While EU leaders celebrated their agreement, the fight over 2030 isn't over. The European Parliament wants a 60 percent cut and has been bridling at the idea that it would simply roll over and accept a lower target.
... for the first time the emissions calculation would count CO2 removals from forests and other land uses, which weakens the actual cuts by between 2 percent and 4 percent."