Hey, EU, Don’t Make Climate Promises You Can’t Keep
“Green Deal” talk is cheap. Carbon neutrality by 2050 isn’t, especially for the poorer European countries of the east.
A pristine Warsaw would be lovely, but ...
Photographer: JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFPUrsula von der Leyen, the new European Commission president, wants to make Europe the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050. She’s promised to deliver a “European Green Deal” in the first 100 days of her tenure, which starts Nov. 1. The neutrality target, however, is unrealistic: It’s undermined by Europe’s economic divergence, which the European Union can hardly be expected to eliminate by 2050.
In June, when the matter of an EU commitment to carbon neutrality first came up, the adoption of the 2050 target was blocked by four countries: Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Estonia. That’s not the list of opponents one might expect based on the long-term emissions history of EU members.