Faced with the existential threat of devastating climate change impacts, CAN Europe expects the EU, its institutions and all Member States, to prioritise urgent action addressing the climate emergency with the aim of implementing the Paris Agreement’s ambition to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C. This will in particular need a substantial increase of climate action in the short term, with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to almost zero and substantially increasing the removal capacity of natural sinks within two decades.

This is a highly challenging but not impossible task, as made clear by the recent Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and the Global Assessment Report of the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services).