Civil society and the path to a carbon-neutral Europe by 2050

Just a few days ahead of last December's climate summit COP24 in Poland, the European Commission published its long-term strategy "A clean planet for all" presenting its vision for achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 through a socially-fair transition in a cost-efficient manner. By drawing attention to a long-term perspective and highlighting the multi-sectoral, complex and fundamental transformation of Europe's societies required to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, the Strategy opens a thorough debate involving European decision-makers and citizens at large as to how Europe should prepare itself towards a 2050 horizon and the subsequent submission of the European strategy to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change by 2020.

The EESC – in the context of the work on its opinion in response to the strategy – organises a public hearing to exchange views with experts, stakeholders, and decision-makers on the strategy. The hearing aims at discussing and evaluating the strategy from three specific angles, namely in terms of different sectors and their contributions, as regards cross-cutting challenges, and with regard to governance and the involvement of civil society.