A trio of central European countries have blocked the EU from inching closer to a net-zero carbon emissions target for 2050. European leaders meeting in Brussels sparred over the EU’s role in tackling the unfolding climate emergency, which threatens to significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat, poverty and destruction of wildlife around the world. Dashing earlier hopes of a compromise, Poland and the Czech Republic refused to sign up to a text that referred to a climate-neutral EU by 2050 – a target that was already seen as too vague by green activists. In a further blow, the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, joined his neighbours in opposing the EU text, despite earlier signs the country was ready to compromise. Supporters of the 2050 plan hoped the EU could show it was moving in that direction ahead of a major UN climate summit in September. Instead the 2050 date was dropped into a footnote that stated: “For a large majority of member states, climate neutrality must be achieved by 2050.”
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