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Europe walks its talk

Nature Climate Change volume 2, pages 227–228 (2012)Cite this article

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The European Union has proposed an impressive budget that 'mainstreams' its climate commitments across funding sectors, but will it reduce carbon emissions, asks Sonja van Renssen.

The European Union (EU) impressed many with its insistent call for ambitious action at the United Nations climate talks in Durban last December. But for all its stirring rhetoric, will the bloc stay in the lead when it comes to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions? The next EU budget, for 2014–2020, should provide a pretty good indication of how seriously policymakers are taking their own promises. The European Commission made a proposal in June 2011 that member states and the European Parliament aim to agree on by the end of this year.

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Figure 1: The European Union budget proposal for 2014–2020.

References

  1. European Commission A Budget for Europe 2020 — Part II: Policy Fiches (EC, 2011); available via http://go.nature.com/RQZJxV.

  2. Medarova-Bergstrom, K. et al. Mainstreaming the Environment and Climate Change in the Post-2013 EU Budget (Institute for European Environmental Policy, 2011); available via http://go.nature.com/r8nlI7.

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  3. EU Funds in Central and Eastern Europe: Roadmap to Sustainability or Dead-end Investments? http://bankwatch.org/billions (CEE Bankwatch and Friends of the Earth Europe, 2011).

  4. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Handbook on the OECD-DAC Climate Markers (OECD, 2011); available via http://go.nature.com/fntBMK.

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  1. Sonja van Renssen is a freelance writer based in Brussels,

    Sonja van Renssen

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  1. Sonja van Renssen
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Correspondence to Sonja van Renssen.

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van Renssen, S. Europe walks its talk. Nature Clim Change 2, 227–228 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1464

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