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Euronews
2 days ago
- Business
- Euronews
France sets framework for EU's 2040 climate targets
The battle to reach Europe's 2040 climate targets has begun. On 2 July, the European Commission is due to present its proposals for reducing CO2 emissions. It is expected to announce a 90% reduction to take the EU towards carbon neutrality by 2050. This proposal comes at a time when the European Green Deal is being called into question and the EU's competitiveness is being strengthened in the face of international competition. Member states are preparing their political arguments for the debate. France has already taken the first offensive at last week's European summit, setting out its framework. "I'm in favour of having these targets in 2040, but basically I said some very simple things. Firstly, if we want these targets by 2040, we have to give ourselves the means to do so and make them compatible with our competitiveness. What does that mean? Technological neutrality, flexibility, investment," French President Emmanuel Macron said at the end of the meeting of the 27 EU leaders. Flexibility: the word has been thrown around and is used repeatedly in Europe's corridors of power. The Commission has also adopted the same term. The Vice-President of the institution responsible for the Clean, Fair and Competitive Transition seems ready to grant flexibility to convince capitals. "Reducing our emissions by 90% by 2040 is a clear objective. We then need to discuss how we can combine the different elements, the possible flexibilities," Teresa Ribera told Euronews. The grey area of flexibility For environmental NGOs, the figure of 90% reduction in emissions is an important marker, but they do not wish to limit the debate to this numerical assessment. Several organisations are warning of the flexibility and possible flaws in the Commission's proposal. Flexibility could take the form of international credits. "Essentially, the EU and its member states could pay other countries outside the EU to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. This amount would then be included in the 90% of greenhouse gas emissions within the EU's borders," explains Michael Sicaud-Clyet, Climate Governance Officer at WWF EU. For him, this political sleight of hand is "a major problem, because it will divert investment to industry, or to people and municipalities outside the EU and it will cost more and have less positive impact on people and industry in the EU." Other forms of flexibility could involve absorbing carbon through carbon sinks, which are natural carbon absorbers, and permanent absorbers, which are technologies whose large-scale development has not yet been proven", warns Michael Sicaud-Clyet. Time for negotiations France says it does not want to rush the negotiations. The 2040 targets "cannot be a technical debate that takes place in a few weeks. It must be a democratic debate," Macron warned. "It's not a target for Belém (the Brazilian city will host COP30, the UN climate conference, this year). If we have it for Belém, great. If it's going to take longer, let's take longer to do it right." The President repeated his mantra of "flexibility, investment, technological neutrality and trade coherence, meaning that if we set targets for 2040, we want a trade policy that protects us." In this debate, Paris should be able to count on the support of Budapest and Warsaw. However, other member states such as Germany, Spain, Finland and Denmark (which holds the six-month EU presidency from 1 July) fully support the 90% emissions reduction target . The WWF EU also mentions a number of "swing states," countries that are keeping their final position vague. For the European Commission, it is vital that the EU does not miss the turning point represented by the 2040 target. "I think this could be a mistake. I think that this year (2025) marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement (on climate), and we want to determine how we can continue to make progress in an area that we consider essential for the economic and social well-being of Europeans," says Teresa Ribera. The Spanish official also opened the door to debate. "We will have to identify the challenges that lie ahead, while trying to reach an agreement between all the European countries."
Euronews
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Renewed concern over direction of EU climate policy in wake of alarming 2024 weather report
ADVERTISEMENT Climate campaigners and green groups have urged the European Union to urgently table an overdue bill for a 2040 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target, as a new report confirmed record high temperatures last year in the world's fastest-heating continent. The second Commission under president Ursula von der Leyen has repeatedly promised to 'stay the course' on climate action by following the absolute minimum recommended by the EU's independent climate science advisory board and proposing a 90% net reduction goal for greenhouse gas emissions. Backtracking would now mean a major loss of face, but recent signals from Brussels suggest the EU executive is considering allowing governments to use carbon credits from outside the bloc, outsourcing part of their emissions reduction, to meet the target. 'If the European Commission is only going to propose 90%, already less than what's needed, it should never be looking into loopholes like buying offsets from other countries,' said Michael Sicaud-Clyet, a climate policy specialist at WWF EU. 'That would undermine domestic climate action and set a terrible precedent internationally,' Sicaud-Clyet said after the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) published a joint report with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). Related Deadly floods, storms and heatwaves: Europe suffered the 'serious impacts' of climate change in 2024 Green MEP Michael Bloss said Europe's political appetite for climate action was dwindling even as the continent heats up. 'The EU finally needs a binding climate target: at least a 90% reduction in emissions by 2040, with clear phase-out paths for coal, oil and gas, more speed in the expansion of wind and solar, the dismantling of fossil subsidies and a fair social balance,' the German lawmaker said. More 'hot air' Environmental groups are deeply sceptical about offsetting schemes. Carbon Market Watch (CMW) published last week an analysis of the first such project approved, last month, under the international credit system agreed at the COP29 climate summit in Baku last November. Related What is Article 6 and why is it controversial? Campaigners react to adoption of carbon credit rules 'These credits are essentially hot air,' said policy director Sam Van den plas, after CMW's analysis suggested the emissions reduction linked to a project to replace wood burner with clean stoves in Myanmar had been overstated by a factor of 27. 'If the EU relies on international carbon credits under the guise of introducing 'flexibility' to achieve its 2040 climate target, it risks increasing global emissions," Van den plas said. But in Germany, with the Greens on their way out of government, the incoming grand coalition of the conservative CDU/CDS and the socialist SPD is pushing for precisely the flexibilities, or loopholes, that the environmentalists are worried about. The new coalition agreement commits Germany to eliminating its carbon footprint by 2045, five years ahead of the European Union net-zero target date. 'We want to remain an industrialised country and become climate neutral,' runs the text of the coalition agreement. It also supports a European net emissions reduction target of 90% by 2040, compared to the 1990 baseline used by the EU. But there are a couple of important caveats: firstly, the EU's 2040 target should not require Germany to increase its own 2040 target of 88%. Secondly, governments should be allowed to use carbon credits to cover up to three percentage points of the required emissions reduction. The conservative European People's Party, the largest group in the EU parliament has already called for carbon credits to be permitted, with the conservative group's environment policy coordinator Peter Liese saying last week that Europe must either 'go for lower targets or include major flexibilities'. A 'problematic fixation' Liese said the European climate report underlined the importance of 'effective climate protection', but said this must not come at the expense of EU industry and that the Commission's 'fixation' on a figure of 90% was 'problematic'. ADVERTISEMENT 'As far as the EU climate target for 2040 is concerned, the biggest problem is that we have no target at all for the period after 2030,' Liese said. 'Other countries such as Japan, the UK and Brazil already set their targets some time ago. China and India, like many others, are waiting for the European Union.' The European Commission still intends to table a proposal 'before the summer', a spokesperson told reporters on Monday (14 April) - but it is missing from a provisional agenda, published on the same day, which covers weekly meetings of the EU executive until the end of June.
