Today a major new coalition of businesses, cities, trade unions and NGOs, are calling on EU leaders to act on the Paris Agreement and ensure that EU climate policies are coherent with its goals.
In a submission to the public consultation that marks the first step towards the review of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), Climate Action Network Europe urges the European Commission to make a pitch for increasing the 2030 energy savings target to 40%. It also advocates for eliminating the accounting tricks written into the Directive, which allow national governments to lower the level of required savings by almost a half.
As the 196 countries have entered the final stretch of the Paris climate talks today, the EU received the fossil of the day award from Climate Action Network. The award seeks to encourage EU leaders to walk the talk and push for the strongest climate agreement possible.
Read more: EU wins Fossil of the Day Award at Paris climate talks for lack of ambition
The new global climate agreement that has been finalized in Paris today sends a strong signal that we need to accelerate phasing out the use of fossil fuels. Lots of work remains to be done to increase climate action in the short term.
Read more: Paris agreement indicates a global shift from dirty energy
The millennium started with a lost decade in terms of climate protection and, as indicated in the eleventh edition of the pdf Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) (3.25 MB) , global emissions were still growing in 2013. For 2014, there are signs of a slowdown or even a halt of this trend.
 Press release including annex | [ ] | 610 kB |