EU Green Week kicks-off as bid to become climate neutral continues

The European Union’s green ambitions will only be attained if both citizens and companies take responsibility, political and corporate leaders said on Tuesday at a Green Week event in Brussels.

Green Week is the EU’s annual event to showcase the bloc’s climate projects and policies and the European Commission launched two days of debates and conferences in Brussels on Tuesday, with the aim of achieving a climate-neutral world. 

The political leaders present stressed the need to change mentalities and, above all, to involve citizens. 

“We haven’t done enough. We as leaders we need to go deeper on regions and on our cities and to talk with our citizens. Why? Because sometimes we are talking so technical, so many technicalities,” Emil Boc, the Mayor of Cluj-Napoca in Romania, told Euronews.

“People don’t pay attention to technicalities if you don’t express your words, your language according with their level of understanding and having a concrete aspect of their lives.”

The corporate world was also represented at the conference, defending the balance they seek between profit and climate commitment.

One of them was Isabelle Guyader, Sustainable Development Manager for retail company Decathlon.

“I don’t really like putting responsibility on the shoulders of consumers,” she told Euronews.

“I like us to take full responsibility. Our role is to help them consume more responsibly because I think everyone wants to consume responsibly. But society isn’t yet ready for that.”