Juncker declares a quarter of EU budget will be targeted on climate action

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has vowed the next EU budget will ensure "every fourth Euro spent" goes towards tackling climate change, in the face of growing calls for the bloc to strengthen its emissions goals.

Juncker was speaking in Brussels yesterday at an event alongside student campaigner Greta Thunberg, who joined more than 10,000 children taking part in the seventh week of School Strike protests in Belgium.

In a speech to the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) Thunberg reiterated her calls for much more ambitious climate action from the world's governments.

"There is simply not enough time to wait for us to grow up and become the ones in charge," she said, arguing that bolder action was needed now to tackle rising global emissions.

She added that the EU's recently agreed goal to cut emissions 40 per cent by 2030 was not in line with what climate scientists recommend.

"Some people say that [target] is good, that is ambitious; but this new target is still not enough to keep global warming below 1.5C," she said, adding that students were demanding that political leaders "talk to the scientists, listen to them".

She added that the current 2030 target was "not sufficient to protect the future for children growing up today". "If the EU is to make its fair contribution to stay within the carbon budget for the 2C limit then it needs a minimum of 80 per cent reduction by 2030, and that includes aviation and shipping," she said.

The EU has promised to develop a strategy to deliver a net zero emission economy by mid-century, but green groups remain frustrated that interim targets for 2030 are not more ambitious, citing studies that a faster decarbonisation trajectory would deliver net economic benefits.

Speaking after Thunberg, Juncker defended the bloc's record, criticised the Trump administration's stance on climate change, and promised to mobilise increased investment in low carbon infrastructure.

"In the next financial period from 2021 to 2027, every fourth euro spent within the EU budget will go towards action to mitigate climate change," he said of his proposal for the EU budget.

He added that "Mr. Trump and his friends believe that climate change is something that has just been invented and it's an ideological concept, but ... something dangerous is already underway".

Thunberg said politicians' failure to act in response to this danger "would be the greatest failure of human history and they will be remembered as the greatest villains of all time".

Speaking to journalists after the event, Thunberg expressed frustration at some of the media coverage the school strikes have received. "When people talk about the climate strikes… they talk about almost anything except for the climate crisis: they talk about whether we are promoting truancy, or whether we are puppets, or it's great that the young people are taking action," she said. "They don't want to talk about the climate crisis… they just want to change the subject."