European Union lawmakers declared a "climate emergency" on Thursday in a symbolic vote that heightens pressure for action against global warming at an upcoming summit in Madrid on December 2.
The resolution was passed after a debate on Monday night in the European Parliament on the upcoming COP25 summit, with 429 members of parliament for, 225 against and 19 abstaining.
Dissenters objected to the word "emergency", saying it was too drastic, and "urgency" would suffice.
Author of the COP25 motion and Renew Europe Party ME, Pascal Canfin, said that lawmakers should consider young people when deciding whether to declare a climate emergency.
"Do we want to leave them a world with three degrees, four degrees, five degrees more of global warming? If we do not want that - if we want to send a message to our children, to all our children, including mine, then we have to vote in three days to declare a state of climate and environmental emergency," he said.
The President-elect of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen, is slated to speak on the first day of the Madrid summit. She wants to see billions of euros invested into making Europe the first "climate neutral" continent - adding no greenhouse gases beyond what can be absorbed - by 2050.
The EU parliament's vote should help shape policies for the bloc's incoming executive head who assumes office on December 1.
The 28-nation EU is the first multilateral bloc to call a climate emergency, but joins numerous individual countries and cities from Argentina and Canada to New York and Sydney.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: Flicr (CC BY 2.0)/Guilhem Vellut