EU Unveils Long-Delayed 2040 Climate Target

After months of tough negotiations with EU states, Brussels announced it would stick to the objective announced last year of cutting emissions by 90 percent by 2040, compared to 1990 levels.

The 2040 target, which needs the sign off from the European Union's member states and parliament, is a key milestone towards the bloc's goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

Brussels says the EU has cut climate-warming emissions by 37 percent relative to 1990 but its green agenda faces mounting pushback with a rightward shift and rising climate skepticism in many European countries.

EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra acknowledged the "sensitive" debate, saying Brussels was keeping an "ambitious" goal while being "pragmatic and flexible on how to achieve it."

To sway resistant capitals, the European Commission proposes that from 2036, the bloc's 27 countries can count carbon credits purchased to finance projects outside Europe, for up to 3 percent of their emission cuts.

Climate groups are fiercely opposed to such a measure.

Backed by scientific studies and the commission's own science advisers, they say factoring in international credits, for things like tree-planting or renewable-energy projects, risks undermining the EU's own efforts to shift away from fossil fuels.

EU environment ministers will discuss the objective at a meeting in mid-July, ahead of an expected vote to approve the measures on September 18.

It will only become law after EU lawmakers also sign off on the target.

The commission's hope is that the 2040 objective will be approved before the U.N. climate conference (COP30) in November in the northern Brazilian city of Belem.

Source: Reuters