The EU will probably set a new climate target for 2040 "before the summer", said EU Commissioner for Climate Action Wopke Hoekstra at a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday.
Here, the EU Commission presented a report showing that EU countries are now well on their way to meeting the already agreed 2030 target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent. This may make it easier for EU countries to accept a new climate target for 2040. The 2040 target is intended to increase the certainty that the EU will reach the final goal of climate neutrality in 2050.
- I am increasingly convinced that we will agree on an ambitious 2040 target before the summer. So the next question is when will summer begin? Our summer begins when we go on break (in August, ed.), says Wopke Hoekstra.
Denmark will take over the EU presidency on July 1. If negotiations with EU countries drag on, the 2040 target may be set while Denmark leads the ministerial meetings.
However, reaching an agreement has not been easy so far. Back in February 2024, the EU Commission presented its assessment of a climate target for the EU in 2040.
At that time, the Commission recommended reducing the EU's net greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent. in 2040 compared to the 1990 level. Since then, it has proven quite difficult to get EU countries on board.
Will change terms
In March, the online media Politico described that the EU Commission wanted to maintain the target of a 90 percent reduction in 2040, but in return change the way in which countries measure their achievement of the target.
This happened after criticism in several countries that the EU climate targets made life more expensive for companies and citizens, who were left with higher energy bills.
According to Politico, among the options for easing the path for EU countries to meet the new climate target was to introduce more "flexibility" in what EU countries can count on. For example, according to Politico, it was on the table to let EU countries count CO2 reductions that they pay for in other countries.
According to Politico, another idea was to give more weight to the fact that forests or technology can remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. All in an attempt to make the 2040 target palatable, so that it can be approved by EU countries and a - after last year's elections - slightly more climate-skeptical EU Parliament.
However, climate activists have warned that the measures could weaken the 2040 target. And thus also the EU's ability to meet the overall goal of climate neutrality in 2040.
/ritzau/
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