Europe unveiled a landmark green growth law on Wednesday but failed to impress teenage activist Greta Thunberg, who dubbed it a 'surrender' to the threat of climate change
Brussels - Europe unveiled a landmark green growth law on Wednesday but failed to impress teenage activist Greta Thunberg, who dubbed it a"surrender" to the threat of climate change.
The proposal"will be our compass for the next 30 years and it will guide us every step of the way as we build a sustainable new growth model," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters. The European Union must stop"pretending that you can be a climate leader and still go on building and subsidising new fossil fuel infrastructure," the Swedish activist told a committee hearing at the European Parliament.
It would also give the EU executive new powers to impose emission targets on member state governments, a measure welcomed by greens and some activists.But handing more power to the commission, the EU's executive arm, faces almost certain opposition from the national governments and the European Parliament which must ratify the proposal.
It binds the EU's 27 member states to balance polluting emissions and the removal of greenhouse gases -- such as by using carbon capture technology or reforestation -- within the next 30 years. "Europe is betting on unproven technologies and carbon sinks to suck up carbon we belched into the atmosphere, when we should be ending fossil fuels," said Molly Welch of Friends of the Earth Europe.
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