The new head of the
European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will attend a climate summit in Madrid and travel to Africa in her first week in the job, highlighting two of the key priorities for the EU executive over the next five years.
Von der Leyen has set high targets in the European Union's policy to combat climate change, pledging to reduce the bloc's carbon emissions by at least 50% by 2030.
On Sunday, her first day at the helm, she repeated to journalists her objective to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, meaning carbon emissions should be fully offset by measures that cut CO2, like planting trees.