The European Union’s Eurelectric group has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2050. Eurelectric is a group of power companies across the 27 countries in the EU who produce 70 percent of all electricity in the EU.
The companies made the pledge to be carbon neutral just this Wednesday. Eurelectric pledged to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions and to use carbon offsets for emissions they cannot decrease. The group will invest in tree planting, solar panel building and other climate change related projects to offset the emissions.
The Eurelectric group estimates that they need about 1.8 trillion euro to replace old plants and improve their power grids. The largest emissions come from the coal-burning power plants, akin to power sources in North America. Eurelectric plans on replacing these coal-burning plants in the next few decades. Also necessary according to Eurelectric is making regulations regarding new plant building simpler.
Eurelectric also insisted that governmental and European Union assistance would be absolutely necessary. The group wants assistance with renewable energy, nuclear power and coal technology projects. One of the coal technologies Eurelectric wants to take advantage of is carbon capture and storage. In this means of carbon reduction carbon is captured and stored underground.
The European Union is making great strides in their dedication to preventing worsening climate change. Other countries around the world, particularly the United States and China, could learn from their example.
