European Parliament declares climate emergency and carbon neutrality in 2050

EUROPEAN UNION. A few days before the opening of the COP25, which will be held from 2 to 13 December 2019 in Madrid, the European Parliament adopted on Thursday 28 November 2019 a resolution declaring "the climate and environmental emergency in Europe and in the world". For Pascal Canfin, MEP and Chair of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, "the Parliament has just adopted an ambitious position (...) This vote also sends a clear and timely message to the European Commission a few weeks before the publication of the communication on the green deal."

429 MEPs accepted the resolution, 225 were against and nineteen abstained.

The text calls on the European Commission to "ensure that all its proposals are aligned with the 1.5°C global warming target". A separate resolution calls on the EU to also reduce its emissions by 55% by 2030 to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, as set out in the UN climate change convention. Today, the European Council has still not approved the European Commission's target, with three countries (Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic) opposing it.

According to MEPs, "all countries should include emissions from international aviation and maritime transport in their draft nationally determined contributions". They urge the Commission to propose including the maritime sector in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

The European Parliament "urges all EU countries to phase out all direct and indirect subsidies for fossil fuels by 2020".