While the Green New Deal struggles to get off the ground on a national level in the US, the European Commission has voted to introduce their own version of it. The proposal dubbed the “European Green Deal,” will overhaul the bloc’s economy to more sustainable, climate-conscious policies and infrastructure, with the goal of being carbon-neutral by 2050.
The proposals seem to leave no part of life untouched, as it affects transportation, agriculture, energy, and buildings. Industries such as cement, steel, information and communication technology, chemicals and textiles are also included, as CNBC reported.
To reach carbon neutrality in 30 years, the package calls for upping the Paris agreement target of slashing emissions to 40 percent below pre-1990 levels by 2030 to 50 percent. The policy paper also calls for massive payouts to member-states that rely on coal power as a way to wean them off burning fossil fuels and shift to renewables.
Climate activists welcome the bolstered climate plan but disagreed with the fact that it emphasized continued economic growth as a key objective. Ester Asin, Director of the WWF’s European Policy Office, said that “by emphasizing continued economic growth as a key objective, the Commission has missed an opportunity to challenge the traditional growth paradigm in favor of an approach that would respect planetary boundaries.”
