European Union countries’ climate ministers are expected to confirm on Thursday that the bloc will miss a global deadline to set new emissions-cutting targets, due to divisions over the plans among EU governments.
Missing the deadline could be a blow to EU leaders who were due to join other world powers at the United Nations next week to present new goals in the run-up to COP30 climate talks in November.
Major emitters, including China, are expected to meet the deadline. Australia announced its target on Thursday.
EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra on Thursday defended the bloc’s record. “If you zoom out, you can find that we continue to be amongst the absolutely most ambitious on the global stage,” he said.
The U.N. had urged countries to bring updated climate plans to its General Assembly next week, in a bid to revive global momentum to tackle climate change.
That momentum has been hit by President Donald Trump rolling back U.S. climate commitments, and governments struggling to balance environmental protection with economic and geopolitical challenges.
The EU had planned to agree new climate targets for both 2040 and 2035 this month. But countries – including Germany, France and Poland – demanded government leaders first discuss the 2040 goal at a summit in October, derailing talks on both targets.
“The EU has always taken these decisions after massive debates. It was never an easy subject. We must be careful not to split the EU further over climate policies,” Germany’s climate state secretary Jochen Flasbarth said, adding that this was true in particular for poorer Eastern European nations.
As a fallback, EU ministers will try on Thursday to agree a “statement of intent” outlining what climate goal the EU eventually hopes to approve.
A draft of the statement, previously reported by Reuters, said the EU would try to agree anemissions reduction target of between 66.3% and 72.5% by 2035.
It said the EU would still aim to submit a final 2035 target before COP30 in November – where nearly 200 countries will negotiate their next steps to address global warming.
“It is hard for us to require the others, our international partners, to do the same if we don’t deliver ourselves,” Finnish climate minister Sari Multala said.
EU COUNTRIES DIVIDED
Traditionally, the EU has pushed for ambitious global climate deals, citing its own policies – which are among the world’s most ambitious – as proof it was leading by example.
But rising concerns over the cost of climate measures and pressure to boost defence and industrial spending have triggered pushback from some member states.
“It is a difficult time we are living in. There is war on our continent… While you’re meeting your ambitious climate target, you also have to have a concern for your industrial base,” said Danish climate minister Lars Aagaard, who will chair Thursday’s meeting of EU climate ministers.
EU countries are at odds over the European Commission’s proposal for a 2040 climate target to cut net greenhouse gas emissions by 90%.
The Czech Republic and Italy are among those who have opposed this goal. They also want to weaken existing EU climate policies they say hurt industries, including the bloc’s 2035 ban on new CO2-emitting cars.
Other governments, including Spain and Denmark, support stronger climate action, citing the severe heatwaves and wildfires which blaze across Europe each summer – and the need to reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels.
(Reuters)