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2. 12. 2019 20:00

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš speaks at the Madrid climate summit

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš speaks at the Madrid climate summit, 2. December 2019.
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš speaks at the Madrid climate summit, 2. December 2019.
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš attends climate summit in Madrid. Accompanied by Minister of the Environment Richard Brabec, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš flew to the 25th United Nations Climate Summit, which takes place from 2 to 19 December 2019. At the summit, both members of the government presented goals for climate activities. Many representatives of European countries have expressed their desire for Europe to become the first climate-neutral continent.

At the plenary session, the Czech Prime Minister spoke about the devastating effects of climate change around the world, with the number of extreme natural phenomena in 2019 being alarming. “Europe is the leader in the climate agenda. Other countries are not only failing to meet their obligations, but are even increasing their emissions. If today we have emissions in Europe which are three times lower than in China, which has announced that it plans an increase in the capacity of its brown-coal power plants equal to the whole of Europe, then this can never work. Europe generates nine per cent of global emissions. Across the continent we have reduced emissions by 80 million tonnes of CO2. Meanwhile the rest of the world has increased its emissions by 1.02 billion tons. This is the main problem. The question is how to force other countries outside Europe to honour the Paris climate conference commitments which they themselves set and which were “soft”. Only Europe has the tools to enforce these commitments,” Prime Minister Babiš said after the first plenary session of the Summit.

This conference precedes a conference in 2020, when new commitments must be made and success in achieving the 2015 Paris commitments will be assessed. The Czech Prime Minister talked in plenary about zero carbon being possible for the Czech Republic only if our energy mix is based primarily on nuclear energy.

“The long-term strategies of some large emitters do not indicate improvement, but rather the contrary. This must change. Without greater involvement from the rest of the world, we cannot save the planet,” said Andrej Babiš in his speech.

The Czech Republic fully supports the climate targets and is well on track to meet its commitments. In 2017, greenhouse gas emissions were 35% lower than in 1990 and are expected to continue to decrease significantly in the coming decades. At the same time, the Czech economy has grown fivefold since 1990, showing that economic growth and emissions reductions can go hand in hand.

“In recent years, the Czech Republic has taken a number of ambitious measures. We are committed to meeting the EU's climate and energy commitments by 2020. We will even outperform them. I expect a reduction in CO2 emissions of forty-three per cent by 2030. Our long-term goal is to reduce emissions by 80 per cent by 2050,” Prime Minister Babiš said when presenting the Czech Republic’s plans.

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