EU's 2040 Climate Target: Missed Opportunities for a Healthier, More Equitable Future - EPHA - European Public Health Alliance
EU's 2040 Climate Target: Missed Opportunities for a Healthier, More Equitable Future - EPHA
The European Commission’s 2040 climate target communication, published on the 6th of February, marks a decisive moment in the EU’s commitment to combat climate change, yet regrettably fails to convey the urgency of the climate crisis. By continuing a significant dependence on oil and gas, the use of insufficient technologies, and poorly leveraging health co-benefits, the plan stands in the way of a large-scale system transformation needed to not only guarantee climate neutrality by 2050 but also to remove pressures on all planetary boundaries.
EPHA considers climate policies a cornerstone of public health policy in Europe, emphasising the need for an immediate fossil fuel phase-out, engagement with civil society and vulnerable groups, and fully leveraging health co-benefits to set a global precedent in addressing climate change.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.