A Swedish climate activist has demanded the EU double its climate change reduction targets to keep the planet below a dangerous level of global warming.
Greta Thunberg addressed political and business leaders in Brussels as she led a march of thousands of Belgian students who had skipped class for the seventh Thursday in a row to draw attention to fighting climate change.
The 16-year-old said it was not enough to hope that young people were going to save the world.
“There is simply not enough time to wait for us to grow up and become the ones in charge,” she said, citing the fall in greenhouse gas emissions that was needed by 2020.
“The EU wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2030, compared with 1990 levels.
“Some people say that is good, that is ambitious; but this new target is still not enough to keep global warming below 1.5C,” Ms Thunberg said, referring to what scientists regard as the preferable upper limit if the planet is to avoid extreme droughts, floods and the bleaching of corals.
“This target is not sufficient to protect the future for children growing up today. If the EU is to make its fair contribution to stay within the carbon budget for the 2C limit then it needs a minimum of 80 per cent reduction by 2030, and that includes aviation and shipping.”
Ms Thunberg’s lone school strike last September was the catalyst for a global climate change movement that has seen thousands of school students march for the cause in their local towns.
She said youngsters are being forced to skip school and protest because adults are not addressing climate issues quickly enough.
Ms Thunberg told the European Economic and Social Committee plenary session that "we are school striking because we have done our homework" on the dangers facing the Earth.
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Also at the conference was EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, who said he was "glad to see that young people are taking to the streets for climate change".
"It can in fact bring change," Mr Juncker said, notwithstanding the fact that Greta had chided his class of politicians for negligence in the face of such challenges.
He also criticised U.S. President Donald Trump for suggesting climate change was "invented" and "ideological".
"In the next financial period from 2021 to 2027, every fourth euro spent within the EU budget will go towards action to mitigate climate change," Juncker said of his proposal for the EU budget, which is typically 1 percent of the bloc's economic output, or 1 trillion euros ($1.13 trillion) over seven years.
"Mr. Trump and his friends believe that climate change is something that has just been invented and its an ideological concept, but ... something dangerous is already underway," Juncker said.
Ms Thunberg was in Brussels to join a seventh week of demonstrations by Belgian children skipping school to protest against global warming.
The march itself amid wintry sunshine gathered some 7,500 protesters in Brussels.
Thousands more were marching in large provincial cities.