The European Commission (EC) is seeking to reach its climate targets by 2040 by slashing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by at least 90% compared to 1990 levels, Luxembourg Times informs, citing a report.
To reach carbon neutrality by 2050, the EC has presented a strategy – the Green Deal – and has so far set goals for a 55% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030. The draft outlines various steps to slash emissions, including industrial carbon management and carbon capture and storage (CCS).
“To continue the European Green Deal into the decade up to 2040, extra focus will be needed on the enabling conditions for businesses and citizens to master the transition,” said a draft of the EU plan, Reuters reports.
This new draft and its ambitious goals, however, presented in Strasbourg today, are causing a stir in the German government as lawmakers in Berlin struggle to reach an agreement on CCS in their own country.
Green Economy Minister Robert Habeck has been pushing for CCS all throughout his tenure, however, his idea of decarbonizing Germany by CCS has been opposed by government members and environmentalists alike, Euractiv notes.
Researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research have published a paper saying that, to reach its targets “Germany may have to sequester and store up to 127 million tons of CO2 per year.”
Greenpeace and BUND, on the other hand, have been rejecting the notion of CCS.
“CCS is above all one thing: a child of the oil and gas industry,” the two NGOs argued, adding that the technology began as a fig leaf for oil majors to justify continued expansion, Euractiv reports.
