Europe launches 'Green Deal' as Thunberg denounces climate inaction
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Tuesday
August 09, 2022

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
TUESDAY, AUGUST 09, 2022
Europe launches 'Green Deal' as Thunberg denounces climate inaction

Climate Change

Reuters
12 December, 2019, 01:20 pm
Last modified: 12 December, 2019, 03:02 pm

Related News

  • EU likely to be inflexible to all GSP+ standards: German ambassador
  • Fiji, moving villages inundated by rising seas, wants big emitters to pay
  • FM Momen urges proactive Asean, EU support in Rohingya repatriation
  • Across Europe, gas-strapped cities prepare to power down
  • EU urges dialogue to reduce risks amid Taiwan tension

Europe launches 'Green Deal' as Thunberg denounces climate inaction

Greta Thunberg says the meetings have turned into some kind of opportunity for countries to negotiate loopholes and to avoid raising their ambition

Reuters
12 December, 2019, 01:20 pm
Last modified: 12 December, 2019, 03:02 pm
Climate change activist Greta Thunberg speaks at the High-Level event on Climate Emergency during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid, Spain December 11, 2019/ Reuters
Climate change activist Greta Thunberg speaks at the High-Level event on Climate Emergency during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid, Spain December 11, 2019/ Reuters

Europe sought on Wednesday to bolster the world's faltering battle against climate change with its "Green Deal" to slash fossil fuel dependence, while teen activist Greta Thunberg rebuked global leaders for dragging their feet.

With fires, floods and droughts ruining millions of lives around the world, the European Union's new executive cast the plan as the bloc's "man on the moon moment," kindling hopes among campaigners that other big emitters may follow suit.

Nevertheless, the chasm between the pace of action by Europe and other major economies and the kind of transformational change that scientists say is needed to preserve a hospitable climate stoked fury at UN negotiations in Madrid.

"I'm sure that if people heard what was going on and what was said ... during these meetings, they would be outraged," Thunberg told the gathering. She was named on Wednesday as Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2019 .

"It seems to have turned into some kind of opportunity for countries to negotiate loopholes and to avoid raising their ambition," she added at the summit, accusing politicians of "clever accounting" and "creative PR".

Hours later, police removed more than 100 mostly young protesters, some of whom were crying and angrily demanding "climate justice" in a rare intrusion of visceral emotion into the usually sedate annual two-week UN climate talks.

"It's a terrible signal to the world. If they think they can keep us out to try to roll things through, then they are wrong," Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, who left the venue to support the protesters, told Reuters.

In Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen portrayed the Green Deal, her first major proposal since taking office on Dec. 1, as a major step towards committing the EU to climate neutrality by 2050.

"Today is the start of a journey. But this is Europe's man-on-the-moon moment," she told reporters.

Von der Leyen's talk of visionary action cut a sharp contrast with US President Donald Trump's decision last month to begin withdrawing from global climate negotiations, but many climate activists question how quickly the bloc can embrace a low-carbon future.

Coal-reliant Eastern European states want to win financial guarantees before backing the Green Deal, and campaigners cautioned that the initiative fell short of the massive shifts they say are needed to save vanishing ecosystems.

"We're on a runaway train to ecological and climate collapse and the EU Commission is gently switching gears instead of slamming on the brakes," said Jagoda Munic, director of environmental group Friends of the Earth Europe.

'Doomed'?

UN chief Antonio Guterres said he hoped the Green Deal would set off a virtuous circle in which other big emitters such as India, China and Japan also ramp up pledges under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

"If we just go on as we are, we are doomed," he told Reuters.

So far, 80 countries, accounting for 10.5% of global emissions, have pledged to increase their climate targets in 2020, mostly as part of a new "Ambition Alliance" that Guterres launched in September, the World Resources Institute said.

Hundreds of companies and some large investors have also committed to supporting the Paris temperature goals.

With next year shaping into a decisive moment for the world's efforts to avert catastrophic temperature increases, the European Commission promised new laws in March to make the EU climate neutral by 2050 under the Green Deal.

It also aims to tighten emissions targets and develop a so-called Just Transition Fund to support those nations most affected by weaning off fossil fuels.

All member states except Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary have accepted the climate-neutral goal, which would mean not producing emissions beyond what can be absorbed.

"We are telling adults to act," said Annika Kruse, 18, an activist who came by train from Germany to the talks in Madrid and was among those removed by police.

Activism came from outer space too.

Floating inside the International Space Station, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano joined the summit via a live stream, exhorting people to "pull their heads out of the sand" because they are "refusing to see what's happening" around them.

Environment

Climate crisis / UN climate talks / EU / Green Deal

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Anwar Group looks beyond slowdown – invests Tk5,000cr
    Anwar Group looks beyond slowdown – invests Tk5,000cr
  • A unique exchange rate regime
    A unique exchange rate regime
  • Former US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort is seen in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., February 8, 2021. REUTERS/Marco Bello/File Photo
    Trump says FBI raided his Florida home, broke into his safe

MOST VIEWED

  • Focusing on Awareness, Adaptation and Action stressed to cope with climate change
    Focusing on Awareness, Adaptation and Action stressed to cope with climate change
  • Researchers tracking Bangladeshi mobile phones detected an influx of people arriving in Chittagong, the country’s second-largest city, two days after the cyclone hit. Within six weeks, 50,000 people had arrived from almost every corner of the country. Photo: STRDEL/AFP via Getty Images/Bloomberg
    Actions than talks key to tackling climate migration: Stakeholders
  • Houses turned into little islands. Photo: Muhammad Amdad Hussain
    Time to reassess our disaster management capabilities
  • FILE PHOTO: The United Nations logo is seen on a window in an empty hallway at United Nations headquarters during the 75th annual U.N. General Assembly high-level debate, which is being held mostly virtually due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in New York, U.S., September 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
    Global biodiversity talks to move from China's Kunming to Montreal
  • European envoy visits renewable energy projects of IDCOL
    European envoy visits renewable energy projects of IDCOL
  • FILE PHOTO: Steam rises from the cooling towers of the coal power plant of RWE, one of Europe's biggest electricity and gas companies in Niederaussem, Germany, March 3, 2016. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo
    G7 can spearhead climate fight by agreeing to phase out coal: Germany

Related News

  • EU likely to be inflexible to all GSP+ standards: German ambassador
  • Fiji, moving villages inundated by rising seas, wants big emitters to pay
  • FM Momen urges proactive Asean, EU support in Rohingya repatriation
  • Across Europe, gas-strapped cities prepare to power down
  • EU urges dialogue to reduce risks amid Taiwan tension

Features

Photo: BSS

Begum Fazilatunnessa Mujib . . . woman of moral power

16h | Thoughts
Will Glass Cosmetics be your next skincare holy grail?

Will Glass Cosmetics be your next skincare holy grail?

20h | Brands
Akij Tableware: More than just dishes on a table

Akij Tableware: More than just dishes on a table

21h | Brands
Deeply depressed and afraid of living in total darkness, the Noakhali-based housewife Rasheda desires nothing but to get her vision back. Photo: Noor-A-Alam

Blind people need 25,000 corneas. Sandhani gets around 25

22h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

What caused the Megalodon to go extinct?

What caused the Megalodon to go extinct?

12h | Videos
92nd birth anniversary of Bangamata Fazilatunnesa Mujib today

92nd birth anniversary of Bangamata Fazilatunnesa Mujib today

13h | Videos
Challenges the world will face after 10 years

Challenges the world will face after 10 years

16h | Videos
Ukraine-Russia war at new stage, fear of nuclear radiation increasing

Ukraine-Russia war at new stage, fear of nuclear radiation increasing

17h | Videos

Most Read

1
Diesel price hiked by Tk34 per litre, Octane by Tk46
Energy

Diesel price hiked by Tk34 per litre, Octane by Tk46

2
Housing projects sprouting up by Dhaka-Mawa expressway
Real Estate

Housing projects sprouting up by Dhaka-Mawa expressway

3
Infographic: TBS
Banking

Dollar rate will be left to market after two months: Governor

4
Bangladesh to resume talks for Ukrainian wheat import
Economy

Bangladesh to resume talks for Ukrainian wheat import

5
A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker is tugged towards a thermal power station in Futtsu, east of Tokyo, Japan November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo
Energy

Summit proposes long-term LNG supply to Petrobangla

6
Dollar for LC settlement reaches new high at Tk110
Banking

Dollar for LC settlement reaches new high at Tk110

EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2022
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net