With some clear exceptions, there appears to be broad support among European governments to open negotiations on a 2040 emissions reduction target as soon as possible – but enthusiasm for the 90% cut favoured by the European Commission was less in evidence at an EU Council summit on Thursday.
ADVERTISEMENTSeveral EU governments have demanded the European Commission table an overdue proposal for a 2040 emissions reduction target, the missing milestone on the bloc’s pathway to climate-neutrality by mid-century, though a few remain sceptical.
Under a law adopted in 2021, the EU is committed to net-zero by 2050, after bringing its carbon emissions to 55% below 1990 levels by the end of this decade. The missing element is a 2040 target, which the EU executive was supposed to table last year, and recently removed from its provisional agenda for the coming weeks.
On the way into an EU Council summit in Brussels on Thursday, French environment minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher said she was unconcerned about the delay.
“I have the ambition, and I’ll say it again, that we should set the goal before Belem,” Pannier-Runacher said in reference to the COP30 climate summit scheduled to take place in Brazil in November. “But this objective must be solid and based on trajectories that are achievable.”
The French minister was speaking after taking part in a breakfast discussion among 19 pro ‘green growth’ governments, hosted by Portugal and attended by the EU’s climate and environment commissioners Wopke Hoekstra and Jessika Roswall.
Hungary seeks veto
Hungary remained sceptical, however, with minister Anikó Raisz restating its long-standing position that the decision was of such import that it could only be made by the unanimous agreement of EU heads of government – meaning the country’s premier Viktor Orbán could wield a veto.
The target as envisaged under the EU’s climate law would be subject to the usual legislative process, where support from a qualified majority of governments – and the European Parliament – would be sufficient.
Also at the Portuguese breakfast was Germany’s Steffi Lemke, who while acknowledging a swing to the right in recent elections meant this was likely to be her last EU Council summit, said she saw no room for backtracking on climate action.
“Those who hesitate and those who want a rollback – incidentally, for reasons completely different from market stabilisation or security interests, who simply want to return to the old fossil world – must not be allowed to have a say, especially in this situation,” Lemke said.
During the summit, European Commission Vice-President Teresa Ribera opened a discussion on the climate target and the recently proposed Clean Industrial Deal, a plan to boost European manufacturing and competitiveness in tandem with furthering the energy transition and industrial decarbonisation.
Mixed signals over level of ambition
“The Clean Industrial Deal offers certainty and predictability to investors and combines the different tools and conditions that can create a holistic approach on how to facilitate the way forward. to meet our climate targets, both what has been agreed by 2030 but also the target that we need to put forward for 2040,” Ribera said – without indicating when the proposal would be tabled.
Several countries – among them Czechia and Slovakia – shared Hungary’s doubts about the target, especially the 90% cut recommended as a minimum by the EU’s independent climate advisory board and to which the executive recommitted in its Clean Industrial Deal communication.
Spain – in whose socialist government Ribera was a minister before moving to the Commission in December – supported the 90% goal and demanded a legislative bill “as soon as possible”, a position echoed by Finland.
France reiterated its support for a target, but without explicitly backing the 90% goal. “The 2040 objective has to be based on realistic measures for all sectors, in particular for European industry,” Pannier-Runacher said during the public debate.
The Netherlands also wanted a “swift and realistic” proposal, while Germany – again without putting a number on it – said the 2040 target should be linked directly to a new one for deploying renewable energy.
ADVERTISEMENTItaly did not mention the 2040 target, but described the Commission’s “simplification” drive to ease regulation on businesses as being of “decisive importance” and that it should “speed up these efforts” if it wants to boost competitiveness.
The ‘ball is in the Commission’s court’
Whether or not they agree on a 90% target, there was a general push for the Commission to get the proposal onto the table so the EU Council and Parliament can get to work on it. Poland chaired the summit as holder of the rotating EU Council presidency.
Environment minister Paulina Hennig-Kloska told reporters at the end of the summit that there was no unanimity, but ministers had “managed to agree as far as the general directions are concerned”.
The ball was now in the Commission’s court, the Polish minister said. Environment commissioner Roswall recalled that the EU executive remained committed to following the advice of the EU’s scientific panel.
ADVERTISEMENT“The 90% emission reduction target for 2040 is in the political guidelines that we have decided on, and we plan to stay the course,” she said. But as to when the proposal will be tabled, all Roswall said was that it was “coming in the near future”.
