According to a report published by the Belgian federal authorities, Belgium is not on track to become climate neutral by 2050. The report says that the country is still a long way from achieving its net-zero emissions target. In some fields, such as road transport and land use, things are even moving in the wrong direction. The report comes a week before the global climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém.
However, there are also positive developments, such as the growth in wind energy capacity throughout the country, energy consumption in industry and energy consumption in commercial and buildings is also falling.
However, a week ahead of the Belém climate summit the conclusion of the report is that current trends will not suffice if Belgium is to become climate neutral by the middle of the century.
Greenhouse gas emissions in Belgium are falling, but not enough to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. This is also evident from the federal climate transition report.
But what is going wrong?
First and foremost, there are issues in the field of transport. Emissions related to transport are currently actually higher than they were in 1990. Transport is the only area in which emissions have actually increased. The original aim was to have fewer combustion engines on the roads for more people to travel by train, bicycle or electric car.
However, car and lorry traffic has increased in recent years and most road vehicles are still powered by petrol or diesel engines. Meanwhile, land use is also a cause for concern. Belgium needs additional forests and grasslands to store the greenhouse gasses. However, four-fifths of this kind of greenhouse gas storage capacity has been lost since the 1990s.
The good news is that total emissions have fallen by over 30% since 1990. However, the fall in emissions levels would have needed to be twice this if we were to remain on target to become climate neutral by 2050.