EU sinks cash into climate fight

BRUSSELS, Nov. 3 (UPI) — More than a quarter billion dollars will go to help members of the European Union transition to a low-carbon future, the governing body said.

The European Commission approved a package of investments worth around $246 million to support the region’s sustainable future. Investments unveiled Thursday are part of the so-called LIFE program, a low-carbon investment scheme started in the 1990s.

“With the Paris Agreement entering into force in a matter of weeks, we must now focus on delivering on our promises,” European Commissioner for Climate Action Miguel Arias Cañete said in a statement.

Projects selected under the LIFE program are meant to support European efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030. European member states are obligated to use renewable energy to meet 20 percent of their energy needs by the end of the decade.

Eurostat, the European statistics office, said data from 2014, the last full year for which it published information, show the share of energy from renewable resources was 16 percent, about 89 percent above 2004 levels, the first year it started keeping records on renewables.

The regional low-carbon coordination comes about two months after the EU ratified the Paris climate agreement, which calls on the global community to take action to address threats posed by a warming climate by cutting their emissions.

From a human rights perspective, the United Nations said a changing climate presents a growing threat to future generations.

“That each of the last three years has been the hottest on record shows why it is imperative to focus on implementing the Paris deal and to ensure that the commitments States made to respect and promote human rights in climate action are acted upon and deepened,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said in a statement.