BRUSSELS - An energy mix based on fossil fuels cannot deliver sustainable economic growth for future generations, said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Monday as she sought to add impetus to the decarbonisation of Europe’s economy.

Dr von der Leyen was speaking at a European Parliament-hosted event in Brussels entitled “Beyond Growth” whose main theme was how to reconcile economic development with environmental goals.

“A growth model centred on fossil fuels is simply obsolete,” Dr von der Leyen said, adding that the goal of the European Union’s (EU) Green Deal energy transition was to create “a different growth model that is sustainable far into the future”.

The 27-member EU has a target to cut net emissions by 55 per cent by 2030, as a step towards a “net-zero” goal by 2050, setting it at the forefront of global efforts to decarbonise the economy.

It is pushing a plan to add a legally binding 2040 milestone to ensure that the 2050 target is achieved.

Dr von der Leyen and other speakers at the conference hailed the insights of the 1972 “Limits To Growth” report which set out the findings of a computer simulation by Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists of a world destabilised by growing material consumption.

Controversial from the start, that simulation was attacked as flawed by some and applauded by others as prescient in its prediction of accelerating planetary stress. REUTERS