Brussels (AFP) - Teenage eco-warrior Greta Thunberg branded the EU's grand plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 inadequate on Wednesday and said Europe is falsely claiming to lead the world on climate.
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.
Thunberg
was addressing MEPs as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
announced a new draft law that Brussels has hailed as the cornerstone of
Europe's "Green Deal" to fight climate change.
The
17-year-old said that despite "disregarding" science, the EU was
hoping its plan "will somehow solve the biggest crisis humanity has ever
faced".
European
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (C) announced a new draft law
that
Brussels has hailed as the cornerstone of Europe's "Green Deal" to
fight
climate change (AFP Photo/JOHN THYS)
|
"This
must come to an end," she said.
Earlier,
Thunberg had been a guest at a meeting of top EU officials that approved a
proposal to enshrine into law the EU's ambition of net zero carbon emissions by
mid-century.
This would
bind 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.
The law,
once ratified, would also give the EU executive new powers to impose emission
targets on member state governments.
"When
your house is on fire, you don't wait a few more years to start putting it
out," said Thunberg.
"When
the EU presents this climate law and net zero by 2050 you indirectly admit
surrender, that you are giving up," she said.
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