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Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg cast doubt on the level of ambition

(Reuters, 15 Jul 2021) The European Union's huge policy package to make good on a pledge to reduce net greenhouse emissions by 55% from 1990 levels by 2030 has stirred opposition from climate campaigners and even within the executive European Commission.

Here's why "Fit for 55", the EU's biggest climate package yet, has been criticised as well as acclaimed.

Is 55% a fit target?

In a landmark U.N. deal struck in Paris in 2015, countries committed to aim to limit atmospheric warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7°F) above pre-industrial levels, to try to stave off the worst impacts of climate change.

To get on track for this, by 2030 the whole world needs to cut CO2 emissions by about 45% from 2010 levels and reach net zero by 2050, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The EU's 2030 climate target equates to a 46% cut in its greenhouse gas emissions when compared with 2010 levels, analysts at the Rhodium Group say.

Europe struck a delicate balance between poorer, mainly eastern countries that still rely on coal and some wealthier countries that wanted to cut faster, to set the 55% target.

But the United Nations has also offered different metrics - including in a 2019 "Emissions Gap" report. This called for emissions to shrink 7.6% a year between 2020 and 2030, and has since been widely quoted by campaigners who think the EU target is not aggressive enough.

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Reuters, 15 Jul 2021: Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg cast doubt on the level of ambition