COP29: Belgium not on track to achieve climate neutrality by 2050
Belgium is not at all on track to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, according to a first official analysis of progress on climate change at national level in Belgium.
The report by the department of climate change looked at the five sectors responsible for 98 per cent of Belgium's greenhouse gas emissions: energy production, transport, buildings, industry and agriculture.
Although emissions in Belgium have fallen by 28 per cent since 1990, "the current pace is not sufficient to achieve climate neutrality by 2050", the target set by the European Union.
All sectors off track
Not a single sector in Belgium is on track, and some indicators are even moving in the wrong direction, such as the number of cars per person and the proportion of kilometres driven by trucks.
Land use is also heading in the wrong direction. The capacity for natural carbon storage in soils and above-ground biomass has been greatly reduced by the conversion of grasslands and forests into agricultural and construction land. In order to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, it is essential to increase storage capacity.
Bright spots
Despite this, there are some bright spots, such as the expansion of wind power, nuclear power generation, biomass consumption and industrial end-use energy, which are on track to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
Finally, the researchers stress that several data and indicators are either unavailable or tracked in too fragmented a manner to allow reporting.
© BELGA PHOTO NICOLAS MAETERLINCK
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