EU President calls on China and USA to step up their plans to fight climate change
The President of European Commission – Ursula von der Leyen announced an additional €4 billion (U.S. $ 4.7 billion) in climate finance for developing nations.
Her remarks came during her annual State of the Union address to the European Parliament. She also urged United States (U.S.) and other Member States to contribute their share to developing nations. Earlier, in 2015, the developed nations had reaffirmed their commitment in Paris Agreement to transfer U.S. $ 100 billion a year by 2020 to the developing world to aid their green transformations and to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
This target was missed majorly because of Trump’s ideology of not investing in green energy. Europe contributes € 25 billion a year to developing nations for moving to clean energy.
Taking it to twitter, Ursula tweeted,
Every country has a responsibility!
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 15, 2021
Major economies – from the US to Japan – have set ambitions for climate neutrality in 2050 or shortly after.
These need now to be backed up by concrete plans in time for Glasgow.#SOTEU #COP26 pic.twitter.com/8hGW0CqTaE
The European Union tweeted,
When it comes to climate change and the nature crisis, Europe can do a lot.
— European Commission 🇪🇺 (@EU_Commission) September 15, 2021
And it will support others.
We are proud to announce today that the EU will double its external funding for biodiversity.#SOTEU pic.twitter.com/chebv91gP8
Ursula von der Leyen said that E.U. member states have committed to reduce net greenhouse emissions by 55% by 2030 as compared to 1990 levels. She also urged the E.U. leaders to back the Commission’s proposal for a Social Climate Fund to tackle energy poverty that currently affects about 34 million Europeans. She said that the COP26 Summit to be held in Glasgow in November is a moment of truth. She welcomed climate neutrality ambitions set by Washington and Tokyo but called for them to be backed up by concrete plans in time for Glasgow. In past COP Summits, the world committed to providing U.S. $ 100 a year until 2025.
Besides, The U.S. President – Joe Biden’s Administration has said it will double the level of climate finance transferred in the Obama administration’s second term, which averaged at around U.S. $ 2.8 billion. However, the U.S. needs to do more to make up for the loss when Trump did nothing.
During her hour-long speech, she urged China to be more concrete about its carbon neutrality plans. She also called on Beijing to provide more details about its own strategy. The country has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2060, but Ursula feels this is not enough.
