Greta Thunberg urges EU to do ‘as much as possible’ on climate

Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg on Wednesday urged EU leaders to “do as much as possible” to step up the bloc’s ambitions to reduce carbon output at this week’s summit.

“Of course none of what has been proposed or pushed is in line with the science, but we are still demanding them to do as much as possible... to commit to what they had promised to do” in the 2015 Paris Agreement, Thunberg told AFP in an interview.

Leaders must agree by the end of this year on their 2030 targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and the European Commission has proposed a goal of slashing them 55 percent compared with 1990 levels -- up from 40 percent under earlier plans.

The ultimate aim under Brussels’ timetable would be carbon neutrality by 2050.

Now heads of government will have their say, and must hammer out an option palatable to a European Parliament that has already criticised the Commission’s plan as not ambitious enough.

On Wednesday, 11 member states including France, Spain and the Netherlands backed reductions of “at least 55 percent” by 2030.

But many countries in the EU’s east, notably coal-intensive heavyweight Poland, are reluctant.

Climate charities have warned that reductions of 55 or even 60 percent in EU greenhouse output would fall short of what’s needed to keep global warming below the two-degrees-Celsius ceiling agreed in Paris.