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According to the European climate regulation, the EU should achieve climate neutrality by 2050. What exactly does that mean? The first effects of climate change are already beginning to be felt all over the world, including Europe. Extreme weather events such as droughts, heavy rains, floods and landslides are becoming more frequent. Climate change also results in rising sea and ocean levels, their acidification and loss of biodiversity. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we must do everything to prevent the global temperature from rising by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, otherwise the effects of climate change will be irreversible. For this it is necessary that we do reached carbon neutrality in the middle of the 21st century. This goal is also set by the Paris Climate Agreement, which was signed by 195 signatories, including the EU. In December 2019, the European Commission presented the European Green Deal, which aims to make Europe climate neutral by 2050. The climate regulation should translate these goals into binding legislation.
What is carbon neutrality?
Carbon neutrality means achieving a balance between carbon emissions and their absorption from the atmosphere into the so-called carbon sinks. If we want to achieve carbon neutrality, we must balance all global emissions with carbon sequestration. Any natural or man-made system that absorbs more carbon than it produces can be considered a carbon sink. For example, soil, forests and oceans. These natural sinks absorb between 9.5 and 11 gigatons of CO2 annually. However, they are not enough to absorb all the emissions that humanity emits annually, in 2021 we released up to 37.8 gigatons into the atmosphere.
