EU's Target of Becoming Carbon Neutral by 2030: Critical Analysis

This report provides a critical analysis of EU's target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030 by complying with Paris agreement. It covers legislative proposals, targets, and efforts made by western world organizations to achieve zero emissions by 2030.

Individual Report-
Building a Sustainable
Organization

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................2
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................2
Climate change:...........................................................................................................................2
EU's target of 2030:.....................................................................................................................3
Target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030:..............................................................................3
Legislative proposals to achieve the target:................................................................................3
Western world organizations aim of zero emissions by 2030:...................................................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION
Paris agreement is an international treaty which came out in 2015 to address the main
issue of climate change that was occurring globally due to its potential negative impact. The
primary aim of this agreement is to work towards reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions.
Because it is causing increase in the global temperature which thus requires to be limited to 2
degree Celsius above the pre-industrial levels(Bernardo and et. al., 2021) . Thus, its primary
purpose is to get countries committed towards cutting climate pollution and mitigating the future
climate risks. Achieving carbon neutrality includes having a balance between carbon emissions
and absorption of the carbon from the atmosphere. By working towards it the states wants to
become net zero emitter of carbon dioxide. This project will cover in detail critical analysis of
EU's target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030 by complying with Paris agreement.

TASK
Climate change:
Climate change is already having a global effect because of the changing weather
conditions which are becoming a lot more frequent including in Europe(Boyle, 2018) . It is
causing severe conditions like heavy rains, rise in the sea levels, acidification of the ocean, etc.
In order to limit this the global warming must be reduced for which achieving carbon neutrality
is necessary. This target has been defined in the Paris Agreement which is signed by more than
100 countries including EU(Estrada and Botzen, 2021).
EU's target of 2030:
For this, the EU government has adopted 2030 climate framework in 2014 wherein the target
was to cut the emissions by 40% by 2030. It has launched Effort sharing regulation to achieve
this target where its each country has been bound to cut the greenhouse gas emissions (Gil and
Bernardo, 2020) . In sectors like agriculture, transport, construction of buildings and waste
management it expected to cut down emissions to 30% by 2030 because of their major share in
greenhouse gas emissions in EU. These targets which were set out are also the part of EU's
commitment towards the Paris Agreement(Jia and Lin, 2021). To work towards these targets
even more the the Members of European Parliament in 2018 adopted a new regulation which
could work as a supporter of the Effort sharing decision for the period of 2021-2030. It has laid
down the carbon reduction contributions of the countries as well as rules to carry out evaluation
of these efforts (Kulovesi and Oberthür, 2020) .
Target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030:
To work towards climate change for a longer duration the target for 2050 has been
proposed. The commission has thus proposed to cut down the carbon emissions by at least
55% by 2030 by setting it as a path towards becoming by 2050 a climate neutral
country(Mogomotsi, Mogomotsi and Hambira, 2018). In the way of achieving its targets it has
set out objectives which includes having a cost-effective path, stimulating the work of creating
green jobs an maintaining its track of cutting the greenhouse gas emissions. Also work as an
encouragement to limit the increase in global temperature to a minimum of 1.5 degree Celsius.
Raising the target of 2030 from 40% to 55% has now given a level of certainty for it to become
climate neutral (Ourbak and Magnan, 2018). This new proposal also works in line with EU's

commitment which was made in the Communication on the European Green Deal which has set
out a plan to increase the target of EU for 2030 in a more responsible manner. It is also working
in line with the targets set out by the Paris Agreement in 2015 which includes keeping the rise of
global temperature below 2 degree Celsius and pursuing and putting efforts onto keeping to
below 1.5 degree Celsius (Pietzcker, Osorio and Rodrigues, 2021).
Legislative proposals to achieve the target:
To deliver the target of 2030 in the year 2021 various legislative proposals were adopted
by the European Commission that set out the intention of achieving the climate neutrality by
2050 while also looking after the intermediate target of 2030 of at least 55% reduction in the
carbon emissions (Popovski, 2018). In the European Green deal, the proposal has been revised
including the Effort sharing regulation, the land use and transport legislation so that climate
targets intended to be achieved are worked in a real manner (Prussi and et. Al, 2019). These new
climate laws are thus consistent with the reduction targets of EU while also making the goals of
achieving climate neutrality legally binding. For monitoring of the progress and assessment of
the policy is carried out in a consistent manner an independent board for climate change has been
set up by the name of European Scientific Advisory Board (Salvia and et. al., 2021).
Western world organizations aim of zero emissions by 2030:
Commitments towards carbon neutrality are increasingly made by a growing no. of
countries. Western countries are adopting resilient measures to achieve net zero carbon
emissions (Vicedo-Cabrera and et. al.,2018). Organizations like Pacific community,
Organization for Economic cooperation and development have joined the UN so that there is a
clear roadmap to achieving carbon neutrality (Warren and et. al., 2018). These have resorted to
installation of solar photovoltaic systems, reduction in the use of paper at its conferences,
recycling waste, reducing air travel by bringing out policies for it, etc. United Nations Act Now
policy is one such effort to reduce greenhouse emissions globally. With these efforts it is
expected that net zero emissions are achievable by 2030 (Zhang and et. al., 2021).
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from this report that Climate change is a rising concern all over the
world due to the risks that it poses to the loss of biodiversity. Mitigating efforts towards climate
change are essential because the time is near when the people's capacity to adapt with the rising

global warming will exceed. The countries are thus required to work in line with the Paris
Agreement and work towards reducing their carbon footprint so that net zero greenhouse gas
emissions target of 2030 can be achieved in a responsible manner.
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