Peter Liese: Support negative emissions and, above all, negotiate hard with third countries

“The 1.5-degree target cannot be achieved, also not in the long term”, said Peter Liese, climate policy spokesperson for the largest political group in the European Parliament (EPP, Christian Democrats), in light of the latest Copernicus publications. The EU’ observation service found that the global temperature in 2024 was more than 1.5 degrees higher than in the pre-industrial era. “Formally, the 1.5-degree target is calculated over a 20-year average and if all major polluters worldwide now drastically reduce their emissions in the short term, there is a theoretical chance of still achieving this target, but especially in view of Donald Trump's election and his announcements, I fear that this is unrealistic. Nevertheless, climate protection must remain a priority. In Paris, a strict 1.5-degree target was deliberately not set, instead the Agreement says that global warming must be limited to well below 2 degrees and every tenth of a degree counts in this challenge. We don't know exactly where the tipping points are that will make it impossible to control global warming for our children and grandchildren,” emphasized Liese.

In order to achieve the Paris climate target (well below 2 degrees), the climate politician believes that three points are particularly important:
1. “The European Union must achieve it own climate targets for 2030 and 2050. In doing so, we must pay more attention to ensuring that we not only adopt targets and regulations, but also enable people and industry to implement these targets. This must be done with less bureaucracy and more openness to technology.
2. We must promote the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere as quickly as possible. So-called 'negative emissions' must be included in the emissions trading system (EU ETS).
3. We must cooperate with benevolent third countries. That is why I am also in favour of the Mercosur agreement, given the constructive attitude of Brazilian President Lula on climate protection. We must negotiate hard with those who ignore the Paris Agreement, including through the strict implementation of the carbon border adjustment mechanism CBAM.”

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