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Summary
The European Union (EU) is set to propose a significant new interim target of a 90% emissions reduction by 2040, as part of an amendment to the European Climate Law, which aims to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. This initiative, included in the European Commission’s Work Programme for 2025, reflects the EU’s ongoing commitment to decarbonization, following a prior commitment to cut net emissions by 55% by 2030. However, the proposal has sparked controversy, particularly from far-right factions and certain member states that express concerns over the economic implications amid rising energy costs.
Highlights
- 🌍 New 90% Emissions Reduction Target: The EU aims for a 90% reduction by 2040 to support its long-term carbon neutrality goal.
- 📜 Amendment to European Climate Law: This target is part of a broader framework to achieve legally binding climate goals by 2050.
- 💼 Focus on Competitiveness: The European Commission’s Work Programme for 2025 emphasizes economic competitiveness alongside environmental goals.
- 🔍 Criticism from the Greens: Environmental groups express concerns that simplification efforts may undermine the Green Deal and social progress.
- ⚖️ Backlash from Far-Right Factions: Some political factions and member states fear the target may harm economic competitiveness and increase energy costs.
- 🚧 Missed Climate Deadlines: 182 countries failed to submit updated climate plans to the UN, including major polluters, complicating the global climate action framework.
- 📈 Global Emissions on the Rise: Current pledges are projected to lead to a temperature increase of 2.6-3.1C, contrary to the Paris Agreement goals.
The new target will be part of an amendment to the European Climate Law, which provides a framework to achieve the bloc’s carbon neutrality by 2050 target.
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The European Union’s executive is expected to propose a law to set a new interim emissions-reduction target at 90% by 2040, a move that places the bloc a step closer to its decarbonization goal.
The new target will be included in an amendment to the European Climate Law, which provides a framework to achieve the bloc’s legally binding target of reaching carbon neutrality by mid-century. The bloc has already pledged to cut net emissions by 55% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels.
The plan is part of the European Commission’s Work Programme for 2025, which focusses on competitiveness, defense and simplifications of administrative procedures and implementation of EU rules.
For the Greens, this simplification may be used as “an excuse to strip away elements of the Green Deal and social progress.”
“Simplification as a tool to make companies’ and peoples’ lives easier can be beneficial but not as a byword for stripping away the Green Deal and social progress,” said Terry Reintke, President of the Greens/European Free Alliance Group. “The planet is burning and we cannot risk letting the positive steps we have taken be reversed under the guise of reducing bureaucracy.”
The group also criticized the absence of any clear measures aimed at protecting nature, decarbonizing the transportation sector, and reducing emissions. The Commission on Wednesday pledged to put forward a “strategic framework” for the production and distribution of sustainable transport fuels that will also include measures to “support the accelerated roll-out of recharging and refuelling infrastructure and dedicated green trade and investment partnerships with third countries on renewable and low-carbon transport fuels.”
