On Tuesday 26th November, Ellie spoken about the need for the EU to unite around a target for zero-carbon, with 2050 being simply too late.

Speech:

Madam President, this morning we saw the release of yet another report bringing to light the urgency of the climate emergency, this time from the UN Environment Programme, which shows that the world needs to ramp up its ambitions for cutting emissions fivefold in order to bring us down to the ambition of only 1.5 degree of warming. Currently, we are on track for more than three degrees of warming. It’s yet another in the daily reminders of the urgency of stepping up our action to match with our words.

And if there is one thing on my Christmas list, it is that the European Council in its meeting finally sets a united target for zero carbon and 2050 is still too late. We need urgent action because we, in Europe, bear historic responsibility for starting this problem, burning fossil fuels to fuel the industrial revolution. We have a responsibility correspondingly to fix it, too, and that starts with leadership in our own department, putting our money where our mouth is, on climate.