EU lawmakers have endorsed a 2040 climate target to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 90% from 1990 levels, while allowing up to 10 percentage points of the reduction to be met through UN-backed carbon credits \u2013 a move that significantly weakens the bloc\u2019s headline ambition.<\/p>\n
The deal, reached in the early hours of Wednesday after four hours of negotiations, largely mirrors EU capitals\u2019 position and ends 18 months of arduous talks that repeatedly ran into political resistance from industry-friendly capitals and nervous MEPs.<\/p>\n
Under the compromise, the EU will keep its headline 90% target \u2013 both lawmakers and governments insisted \u2013 but five percentage points may be delivered through international carbon-offset deals with developing nations from 2036. Countries will also be permitted to apply to outsource a further five percentage points. In practice, the bloc could only end up cutting domestic emissions by 80% if both flexibilities are fully used.<\/p>\n
Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said the agreement delivered \u201ca very robust, very ambitious, at the same time pragmatic\u201d framework that \u201cenhances predictability\u201d for industry. \u201cThat is, in my view, a crystal clear win for Europe,\u201d he told Euractiv.<\/p>\n
MEPs secured two key concessions: minimum \u201cquality criteria\u201d for any outsourced climate action \u2013 ensuring projects are sustainable, subject to strong monitoring, and aligned with EU strategic interests \u2013 and a future oral statement from the Commission clarifying that offset credits should not be recognised under the EU\u2019s Emissions Trading System.<\/p>\n
The provisional agreement, which still requires formal approval, risks further eroding the EU\u2019s claim to global climate leadership. At COP30<\/a>, the bloc was unable<\/a> to rally major emitters behind a fossil-fuel phase-out and made little progress in pressing other countries to strengthen their 2035 targets, leaving<\/a> the world on track for only a 12% cut in emissions from peak levels.<\/p>\n The EU\u2019s 2040 target will be assessed every two years and reviewed every five, with additional legislation expected to map out how the bloc intends to meet it.<\/p>\n (cz)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EU lawmakers have endorsed a 2040 climate target to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 90% from 1990 levels, while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[18,440,19,17,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-225245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-science"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115694426230792390","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}