Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, mainly from burning fossil fuels for energy but also from agriculture and deforestation, cause climate change.

Temperatures have been rising steadily and we now face a climate crisis that threatens the world’s peoples, nature and ecosystems.

In 2015 the EU signed the Paris climate agreement, in which countries committed to try and keep temperature rise to 1.5° C. But we are nowhere near on track to achieve that. Much faster cuts in emissions are needed, and this must be done in a socially fair way.

• A 65% cut in EU emissions by 2030 (compared to 1990);
• Zero net emissions in the EU by 2040;
• A rapid phase out of all fossil fuels so we achieve a 100% renewable energy system by the same date;
• A strengthened Just Transition policy framework;
• A well-designed and coordinated EU industrial decarbonisation policy, with only targeted use of renewable hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS);
• Much stricter rules on bioenergy;
• Effective plans and strategies at Member State level;