Big Plans
The European Union just gave itself 30 years to go totally carbon neutral, according to a new climate strategy that the EU hopes member nations will agree to adopt in 2020.
The holistic plan includes strategies ranging from increasing the amount of electricity generated by solar and wind farms to 80 percent to investing in energy efficiency measures like improved building insulation to cut down on heating and air conditioning, reports BBC News.
Baby Steps
The EU’s new climate proposals come in response to the United Nations’ now infamous report that says we have just about 12 years to get our collective act together and stop causing global climate change.
Unfortunately, 30 years is longer than 12 years — even the EU’s most ambitious plans will miss the mark by quite a bit. And with member nations like Poland still heavily depending on coal, the BBC reports, the European Union may not hit its mark at all.
Still, it’s better than the situation in the U.S., where President Trump straight-up dismissed the dire warnings found in the latest climate projections.
Gotta go Fast
If Europe wants to meet — and hopefully accelerate progress toward — its new goals, it will have to invest in new carbon capture technology. Like other proposals among those scrambling to reach timeline laid out in the U.N.’s report, the European plan would rely heavily on carbon capture technology.
Unfortunately, scientists have not yet developed the ability to sequester carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases at the scale needed to save the planet. If we want to have any sort of chance on staving off climate apocalypse, they’ll need to get cracking.
READ MORE: Climate change: EU aims to be ‘climate neutral’ by 2050 [BBC]
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