Science at the center in the EU Green Deal
By Ingemar Pongratz
First evening 2020 by Ingemar Pongratz
The current concern for climate has gathered considerable public attention and public concern. Many members of the public have called for action from the political leadership across the globe.
Recently, world leaders gathered in Madrid to discuss different activities to take to reduce the human burden on the climate and on the environment. The original meeting was expected to take place in Chile but was moved to Madrid due to security concerns.
Unfortunately, the Madrid meeting was not able to reach major concrete steps to reduce the burden on the environment and on the climate. One example is the failure to agree on a global Co2 trading scheme, aiming to make Co2 emissions more expensive.
In addition, although leaders agreed on a declaration to support the Developing Nations. However, no funding was actually allocated. In fact, high emission countries like China, Australia, the US and Brazil were accused of not taking the problem seriously enough and even delaying matters.
Is everything bad and lost?
I would argue however, that there have been a number of very interesting and positive developments recently that will have major impact on climate and the environment.
For example, recently, both the EU and lately China have declared that they will introduce a ban on certain single use plastic items. This is a major achievement. Currently, the plastic waste pollute the World’s Oceans. This plastic waste represents a major risk for marine wildlife. A majpr reduction on single use plastic items will both reduce CO2 emissions and help protect the marine environments.
Recently, the European Commission unveiled their plans to launch the European Green Deal. The EU Green Deal aims to establish Europe and the EU as a climate neutral continent by 2050.
To achieve this ambition, Europe aims to cut greenhouse emission by at least 30% ideally 55%. Furthermore, the EU suggests that these goals will become legislation. This demonstrates the EU commitment towards the Green Deal.
To achieve this goal, the EU plans to strengthen the CO2 emission trading scheme, ensure that EU food productions become sustainable and address the loss of biodiversity.
Most importantly, the EU has also begun the necessary discussions how to finance this ambitious scheme. The EU has for example the EU Agricultural fund to provide considerable funds towards the European Green Deal and we can of course expect that the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation scheme will also provide funding towards Green Deal. This is not very controversial as Horizon Europe should provide at least 35% of its funding towards climate action. Science at the center in the EU Green Deal and activities from many different topics fit well into the climate umbrella.
The future months will be very interesting. Of course, the general public, the environmental lobby and other actors look positively at the EU Green Deal. However, there are powerful lobbies and even member states opposing the EU Green Deal.
Ingemar Pongratz is funder of Fenix Scientific AB / Pongratz Consulting. In addition, Ingemar Pongratz established Letavis AB. We help enterprises and universities to apply for public funding from different schemes. Please contact us through our Contact Form or send us an email if you wish to discuss your possibilities to obtain funding to you project.
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