Climate Change Remains Challenge, Should Be No Backsliding After Covid19 (EU Top Official)

Brussels – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday that since the climate change remains a massive crisis beyond COVID-19, there should not be any backsliding and return to energy production with the use of fossil fuels when the pandemic is over.

“Climate change is the massive crisis beyond COVID-19, and therefore, after the pandemic, there can be no backsliding, no return to economic activity based on fossil fuels at the expense of climate and nature,” von der Leyen said in an address to the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue 2021 forum.

“Let me be clear, the European Green Deal is as important today as it has been before COVID-19. If anything, it has become even more important. There is increasing evidence that the loss of biodiversity is one of the root causes for this global pandemic and while much of the world’s activity froze during lockdowns and shutdowns, our planet continued to get hotter,” stressed the EU official.

Von der Leyen also urged the global community to commit to “climate neutrality” by 2050, adding that this would be a “powerful message” in the run-up to the COP26 climate change conference.

The European Union is set to present a legal framework for restoration of eco-systems in order to protect 30 percent of land and sea in the bloc, von der Leyen said.