EU scales down 2030 climate and energy goals

(planet-ark, 23 Jan 2014) The European Commission - the bloc's executive - said EU governments should face a single binding target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 to a volume that is 40 percent lower than 1990 levels.

That represents a doubling of the goal in the existing 2020 target, but it is still below what some scientists and environmentalists say is needed to prevent the worst effects of climate change and is less than some policymakers wanted.

"What we are presenting today is both ambitious and affordable," Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told a news conference in Brussels as the goals were unveiled.

The Commission' 2030 strategy statement reflects a new sense of pragmatism at a time when European growth is slow and the EU's biggest trading partners, including the United States, Japan and Canada, have scaled back their climate commitments.

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planet-ark, 23 Jan 2014: EU scales down 2030 climate and energy goals