Brussels, Feb. 24, 2021 (Lusa) - The European Commission executive vice-president, Frans Timmermans, responsible for the European Green Deal, said on Wednesday he believes that under Joe Biden's new administration, the United States will "catch up very quickly" on climate goals.
Speaking on the second day of the European Union (EU) Industry Days, Frans Timmermans began by reiterating that Europe wants to be "the first climate-neutral continent", a target the European Commission wants to reach by 2050.
The EU has "set the pace" and "still" leads the race, but the European Green Deal Commissioner believes the Americans "will catch up very quickly" as the Biden administration steps in.
"We have also seen China take some giant steps in the right direction. Japan has also declared that it wants to be climate neutral by 2050, as has Europe. Canada, [South] Korea... We see incredible developments in parts of Africa and Asia. People are getting into this race," he pointed out.
According to Timmermans, by "the way we live now, we would need three planets to accommodate our needs".
He, therefore, called for the need to "make sure we change the way we live to stop the world's temperature rising, [...] and the risk of ecocide" by transforming the economy "so that it can benefit from the industrial revolution that is happening and so that we can bring more people into fair jobs".
The European commissioner said he was impressed that the pandemic had not diminished "people's sense of urgency about the climate crisis".
"Now that people understand how important our health is and how vulnerable we are as human beings, and that the pandemic was also a result of the lack of balance between us and the natural environment, I believe that the sense of urgency we see will help us come out of this pandemic with all the investments needed to recover so that we also transform our economy into a green economy," he underlined.
Timmermans stressed the "opportunity to use the industrial revolution for the benefit of a more productive and circular economy", in which the "dependence on raw materials" is reduced.
"The steps we take in the coming years will be decisive as to whether we will be successful in emerging from this crisis or not."
JAYG/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
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