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Record Heat, Rain Marks Europe's 2020

Lisa Bryant

   PARIS - As President Biden hosts a virtual climate summit this Earth
   Day, a report out Thursday adds more fuel to the planet's growing
   crisis, showing record-breaking temperatures in Europe and Arctic
   Siberia last year. It comes as the European Union announced a key
   climate deal and financing rules -- both sharply criticized by green
   groups.
   The findings of the European Union's climate monitoring service,
   Copernicus, are grim. Europe was hit by record heat and rainfall last
   year. The Arctic overall saw its second warmest year. Both regions are
   warming faster than the global average.

   "Europe has probably warmed at twice the rate compared to the globe
   since the pre-industrial [time]. Whereas the rate of warming in the
   arctic over the last two decades, have been at least five [times] that
   of the global rate," saysFreja Vamborg, a senior scientist at
   Copernicus, and lead author of the latest Europe climate report.
   "Especially Arctic Siberia was by far the warmest on record last year,
   which had local impacts on sea ice, which in turn had an impact on
   temperatures."
   FILE - An aerial view shows a forest fire in Krasnoyarsk Region, in
   Siberia, Russia July 17, 2020. (Julia Petrenko/Greenpeace/Handout via
   Reuters)

   Thursday's report brings new impetus for action during the Biden
   administration's two-day climate summit -- especially for the European
   Union, long considered a climate leader.

   The 27-country bloc reached a tentative deal Wednesday to make its
   climate goals legally binding. The EU aims to slash greenhouse gasses
   by at least 55 percent by 2030 -- up from its previous 40 percent goal
   -- and become climate neutral by 2050.

   Its executive arm has also published its first set of criteria for
   green financing -- intended to drive billions of investment dollars
   into activities formally labeled climate-friendly. The so-called
   taxonomy rules initially deal with areas like forestry and bioenergy.
   Other industries, like nuclear energy and natural gas, will treated
   later.

   The EU's financial services chief, Mairead McGuinness, told reporters
   the package aims to help make the EU's climate neutrality goals a
   reality.
   European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis and EU
   Commissioner in charge of financial services, financial stability and
   the Capital Markets Union, Mairead McGuinness give a press conference
   in Brussels, Apr. 21, 2021.

   "Public money will not be sufficient. So, harnessing private investment
   for sustainable projects is absolutely key. The package today gives
   those who are investing, the knowledge of what is sustainable, but
   equally gives companies the tools to use in order to provide
   information to the market," she said.

   Not everyone agrees. Environmental groups have complained of a rushed
   process in reaching a climate deal. They also slam the first set of
   climate investment rules as shaped by political and business interests,
   rather than science. Several say they will stop advising the European
   Commission on drafting the rules.

   "The message is that the EU, which calls itself a climate leader, can't
   even walk its own talk. It's allowing activities which are harmful for
   the environment to be classed as green," said Henry Eviston,a
   sustainable policy finance officer for the WWF's European Policy
   Office. The environmental group blames lobbying by Sweden and Finland
   for watering down green financing rules related to bioenergy and
   forestry. It warns that other countries and companies are doing the
   same when it comes to areas like natural gas and nuclear energy.

   Other observers agree the raft of competing interests make the drafting
   of green financing rules extremely difficult. Some fear if they are too
   stringent, they will thwart investment. But, says a Financial Times
   editorial echoing others, Brussels cannot ignore the science that's at
   the heart of the climate change dilemma -- and which these rules are
   supposed to address.