The European Climate Law commits Europe to becoming carbon neutral by 2050. But what does this mean in practice?
Climate change is already affecting the entire world, with increasingly frequent extreme weather conditions such as droughts, heatwaves, heavy rains, floods, and landslides also impacting Europe. Climate change also contributes to rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and biodiversity loss.
Carbon neutrality is crucial to maintaining the temperature increase below 1.5 degrees Celsius, a level deemed safe by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This importance is also recognized in the Paris Agreement, signed by 195 countries, including the EU.
In December 2019, the European Commission presented the European Green Deal, which was created to achieve climate neutrality in Europe by 2050. The European Climate Law, which integrates climate neutrality into binding EU legislation, will help achieve this goal.
What is Carbon Neutrality?
Carbon neutrality refers to the balance between carbon emissions and carbon absorption from the atmosphere into carbon sinks. To achieve net-zero emissions, all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions should be offset by carbon sequestration.
A system that absorbs more carbon than it emits is called a carbon sink. The main natural carbon sinks are soil, forests, and oceans. According to estimates, natural sinks remove between 9.5 and 11 Gt of CO2 annually.
Global annual CO2 emissions reached 37.8 Gt in 2021.
Carbon Offsetting
Emissions generated in one sector can be offset by reducing emissions in another. This can be achieved through renewable energy, energy efficiency, and low-carbon technologies. The European Union’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) is an example of a carbon offsetting system.
Another example of an initiative to reduce emissions is the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which aims to impose a carbon levy on imported goods from countries with less stringent emission rules. This is intended to discourage companies from relocating production outside the EU to areas with more lenient greenhouse gas emission regulations.
EU Goals
The European Union has set ambitious climate-related goals. With the help of the Green Deal, Europe aims to become the first continent to remove as many CO2 emissions as it produces by 2050. This goal became legally binding in 2021 when the European Parliament and the Council adopted the climate law.
The 2030 emission reduction target was also revised from 40% to at least 55%. The EU is revising old legislation and introducing new laws to help achieve this goal. The legislative package, known as “Fit for 55,” includes rules on emissions trading, national emission reduction targets, carbon removal in the land use sector, and emissions from transportation.
Source: (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/)