EU proposals to allow member states buy carbon credits from developing countries angers climate activists
The EU will discuss on Wednesday its target for slashing carbon dioxide by 2040, with an expected cut of 90% compared with 1990 levels, in line with the bloc's overarching target of reaching net zero by mid-century.
If agreed by member states, and passed by the EU parliament, that goal is then supposed to be translated into an international target — known as a nationally determined contribution (NDC) — pegged to 2035, under the Paris agreement.
But green groups are furious over proposals that would allow part of the target to be made up from buying carbon offsets from overseas. They argue the EU should meet its targets domestically. More than 130 groups wrote to express 'extreme concern' over the proposals last month.
Gareth Redmond-King, the international lead at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit think tank, said: 'There is no need for them to use credits. If such a major emitter is not going as far as they demonstrably could with emissions cuts, then the overall global ambition is lower than it could be. This would risk undermining the EU's reputation for climate leadership at a time when that leadership is most needed.'
Wopke Hoekstra, the EU climate commissioner, said developing countries were keen to gain EU financing through carbon credits, for projects such as tree-planting or forest restoration, and it was possible to ensure such offsets resulted in genuine emissions reductions. He said the possibility of allowing this was 'potentially very attractive'.
'The planet doesn't care about where we take emissions out of the air,' he said. 'You need to take action everywhere, but it certainly also helps to do that both here and elsewhere.'
But such projects would have to be in addition to actions developing countries are already taking to meet their own emissions targets, rather than replacing them.
Hoekstra acknowledged there had been problems in the past with carbon credits that were found to be worthless.
'It all stands or falls with the integrity of such a system, where certification, verification [of carbon credits], is absolutely essential,' he said. 'But humanity has solved more difficult problems.'
Wednesday's talks on a 2040 emissions target could also be derailed by a small number of member states, led by France, mooting 'decoupling' the domestic target from the NDC. They argue the NDC, with its 2035 emissions target, could be delivered in September without the 2040 figure being agreed, implying a less ambitious 2040 goal could be agreed at a later date.
Hoekstra was firm. 'We will come up this Wednesday with our 2040 climate target, and from that we will derive an ambitious NDC. And I am confident that we will deliver that exact number by September, as we were asked for by the secretary general of the UN.'
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