A group of climate change activists climbed onto the Europa Building in Brussels, which is playing host to a European Council summit, and set off flares in a protest on Thursday against proposals to make the European Union carbon-neutral by 2050, a date that protesters believe to be not soon enough
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th December, 2019) A group of climate change activists climbed onto the Europa Building in Brussels, which is playing host to a European Council summit, and set off flares in a protest on Thursday against proposals to make the European Union carbon-neutral by 2050, a date that protesters believe to be not soon enough.According to Greenpeace, a leading environmental NGO, 61 climate change activists took part in the protest, designed to coincide with the beginning of a two-day European Council summit. EU leaders are meeting to finalize the bloc's long-term strategy on climate change, which will be submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat in 2020.
Top of the agenda is ensuring that the EU reaches net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but the NGO is imploring policymakers to act sooner.
"In this very building, Leaders of EU countries are currently discussing what climate actions to take by... 2050. But that's just too late! We have no more time for delays. So activists today sent them a taste of #ClimateEmergency, to say ACT NOW!" Greenpeace said on Twitter.
The protest comes after new EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen introduced her Green Deal to the European Parliament on Wednesday. The president's proposals seek to make Europe's economies resource-effective in order to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Greenpeace has urged European leaders to act sooner, and has called for a significant decrease in emissions by 2030, in order to reach carbon neutrality by 2040.
