Carbon certification proposal risks climate action

On the last day of November, the EU Commission launched its proposal for certifying removals of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, as part of its efforts to reach zero emissions by 2050. Commission Vice-president Frans Timmermans argued for the need for the proposal during a press briefing on the same day: “Deep and drastic emission cuts will always be the core of our efforts but it’s impossible to bring all of our emissions down to zero, so we will need carbon removals as well through technology or natural carbon sinks”.

However, the proposal has sounded alarms among climate justice and environment campaigners, food, farm, development, and faith-based groups, and experts across Europe and beyond. Over 200 organisations have signed Real Zero Europe’s statement, calling for the EU to “deliver real, deep, emissions cuts now,” instead of generating false confidence in unproven future [carbon dioxide removal] CDR. They argue the proposal will delay real action and cause governments to miss the rapidly-closing window to keep global temperatures below 1.5 degrees of warming by locking in fossil fuels for decades to come.

Lucy Cadena, the coordinator of the Real Zero Europe campaign, said: “Every ton of future promised carbon removals represents a delay in emissions cuts today, bringing us deeper into climate chaos. COP27 revealed the corporate greenwash of ‘net zero,’ with a fossil fuel phaseout omitted from the final outcome. Now, we are bringing this fight home – we cannot let historical polluters like the EU off the hook.”

The proposal: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiative...
Pressrelease from the Real Zero Europee campaign, 28 November 2022: https://www.ciel.org/news/real-zero-europe/

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Main menu

Carbon certification proposal risks climate action

In this issue

Greater efforts to improve EU air quality needed

Editorial: Air pollution exposure will remain unacceptably high

Nitrogen ruling puts Dutch CCS project on hold

Ways through the rare earth element bottleneck

Climate change will worsen air quality

The remaining global carbon budget leaves little headroom for Europe

Richest 1% of the world responsible for 17% of emissions

Health effects of extreme high temperatures

Air pollution can damage children for life

Proposal to integrate maritime transport in the EU ETS

EU must phase-out coal and gas and promote plant-rich diets to deliver on methane

Whole of Europe must do more to align with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C target

The higher the energy efficiency target, the greater the benefits

Regulating the most polluting livestock farms is justified

EU must reform the ETS to make it an effective instrument

European research infrastructures for climate change and air pollution policies

Publications

Food for Thought

Northern forests, climate change and the UNFCCC

EU climate targets aligned with the Paris agreement’s 1.5°C objective

Baltic Sea Offshore Wind Collaborative-Learning project

Air pollution in Europe and children’s health

Climate Change: A Himalayan Odessey

No further discussion needed. The agreed global goal is to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C

Fossil-free electricity 2021

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