EU Falls Short on Energy Transition | People Take Climate Action | Who Reigns after King Coal? – July 2019

Discussions about global warming and its manifold devastating impacts have been dominating the international media landscape all along this summer – also this month, is on track to become earth’s hottest month on record. Despite all this and the associated transfer of political attention toward the climate crisis, the amount of action taken by governments over the last month has been woefully lacking. The EU’s newly inaugurated President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, presented the idea of a European Green Deal. While this sounds ambitious, concrete proposals and measures are missing. And while having introduced the idea of becoming climate-neutral by 2050, the EU bodies have not managed to commit to this goal either. Frustrated with such two-faced statements and actions of national governments all over the world, cities & communities are taking matters into their own hands: declaring „Climate Emergency“ and taking action for themselves. Another possibility to make your national government care about global warming: Sue them. A recently published survey found that climate litigation cases have drastically increased through the last years, with a resounding amount of success. Individuals, organizations, businesses and cities demanding and taking legal action for more climate action is one of the most remarkable accomplishments of our time. Yet, we have to emphasize: Aiming for net-zero by 2050 is not enough. In order to get even close to 1.5°C, we need to reach zero emissions way before. And how will such a zero-emission economy look like? We don’t know yet, what we do know is that it will be fueled by a 100% renewable energy system, as solar & wind are already picking up the torch from dying king coal. If you ask us, this cannot happen fast enough. And while it happens, read our newsletter right here to provide you with all the information and analysis you need on the way.