One of the world’s leading climate change activists is calling new environmental laws passed by the European Union a “surrender.”
Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg was in attendance on Wednesday as the EU unveiled a proposed climate law, which would legally bind the 27-nation political body to achieve net-zero global emissions targets by 2050 if approved, in Brussels. But Thunberg, who has risen to international acclaim for her climate activism, said the measure didn’t go far enough.
“’Net zero emissions by 2050′ for the EU equals surrender. It means giving up,” wrote Thunberg in an open letter signed by 33 other climate activists and published on Tuesday. “We don’t just need goals for just 2030 or 2050. We, above all, need them for 2020 and every following month and year to come.”
Thunberg, 17, claimed the proposal does not go far enough to curb global climate depredation and signaled to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that the legislation will “mean nothing if high emissions continue like today.”
“You admit that you are giving up, on the Paris agreement, on your promises and on doing what you can to ensure a safe future for your own children,” Thunberg told the political body. “This climate law is surrender. Nature doesn’t bargain, and you cannot make deals with physics.”
Thunberg told members of the European Parliament that “empty words” cannot slow the environment’s decline and that the only way to stop the climate crisis was for society to change.
Greenpeace agreed with Thunberg’s statement and claimed the EU was slow-walking actions on climate which “would crush the EU’s ability to play a leading role in global climate talks.” The nonprofit group displayed a video of flames on the side of a house in Brussels, urging members to act as if their houses were on fire.
Von der Leyen refused to accept Thunberg’s assertion, saying the new law “offers predictability and transparency for European industry and investors.”
