Countries call for increased EU spending on tackling climate change

In a statement, eight EU member states have called for an increase in the climate change budget. These countries were Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Luxembourg, and Sweden.

The group wants at least a quarter of the EU’s budget to be spent on climate change in the coming years, and also want greenhouse emissions to be at net-zero by 2050 at the very latest.

The joint statement reads: “Climate change is a global challenge with profound implications for the future of humanity and our planet. Its impacts are already felt all across the EU, with for example the heat waves and scorching fires of last summer.”

“It is crucial to redirect the financial flows, both private and public, towards the climate action. The EU budget currently under negotiation will be an important tool in this respect: at least 25 per cent of the spendings should go to projects aimed at fighting against climate change.”

At the moment, the EU’s annual budget allows for the spending of €900bn between 2014 and 2020. Later this week, leaders will meet in Romania to discuss this, among other key issues like Brexit.

This comes amid warnings from the UN, which has recently warned that drastic changes need to be made in the way we power our homes, vehicles, and factories, in order to limit global warming as much as possible.

According to the UN’s secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, failing to do this would be a “catastrophic situation for the whole world,”

He added that world leaders “need to do much more in order for us to be able to reverse the present trends and to defeat the climate change”.

One of the ways he wants to do this is by stopping the building of any new coal power plants after next year. And, he wants to ensure that no more greenhouse gases are being emitted into the atmosphere by the year 2050 than can be taken out by natural processes.