EU Council agrees on 2050 climate neutrality goal, Poland exempted

European leaders meet which happened, last week in Brussels has agreed to make the currently 28 member bloc carbon neutral by 2050. Poland which remains opposed to the mission has currently been exempted. On Thursday, EU’s new executive unveiled €100 billion European Green Deal for the net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target.

Carbon-neutral 

Several other eastern European countries also demanded financial guarantees before they agreed to the EU cutting to zero its net amount of greenhouse gasses. Earlier out of four nations of the Visegrad group -- Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic had blocked the attempts stating their dependence on coal. They claimed that they previously opposed climate neutrality by 2050 because cutting greenhouse emissions will suffocate their economies.

Hungary and the Czech Republic were brought on board after assurance that nuclear energy would be included in the final mix. However, Poland had tried to postpone the date to 2070. The Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that the negotiations were very difficult and that his country will be reaching climate neutrality at its own pace. Currently, around 80% of Poland's power production is provided by coal, although the country aims to cut it to half by 2040.

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Newly elected, European Council President Charles Michel admitted that it was more difficult for some countries and regions to adapt. He further that the council has reached an agreement on the Climate change but for one member state, it is necessary to take more time to implement this objective adding that he hoped to bring Poland on board in the next meeting that is scheduled to happen in June 2020. He tweeted a short video message about the EU agreement.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is essential to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees which is the main objective of the UN Paris Agreement. The EU summit came as UN climate talks in Madrid, COP25 were due to wrap up on Friday.

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