The European parliament's environment committee has decided to delay a planned 23-24 September vote on the EU's 2040 greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target, without setting a new date.
The European Commission's has proposed a 90pc GHG emission cut target for 2040, compared with 1990 levels, which the environment committee was due to vote on.
The delay comes as parliament's largest centre-right EPP group wants to vote on the 2040 target after EU climate and environment ministers decide their position. But EU ministers will not approve the 2040 target at their 18 September meeting as initially planned and only discuss the approval of a statement of intent on the bloc's nationally determined contribution (NDC) — climate plan due to be submitted to the UN.
The next plenary of the European parliament could still vote on 7-9 October on the 2040 target, a source said. But since the EPP was so keen to postpone they could seek to delay until after EU leaders hold their 2040 debate at a 23-24 October summit.
Austrian Green member of the environment committee Lena Schilling told Argus that the EPP didn't want to support an urgency motion in July as they claimed they needed time to properly analyse the commission's 2040 proposal. The EPP said at the time that "their intention was not to delay the process", Schilling said. But she added that "if the EU goes empty-handed to the UN General Assembly next week, it will be the EPP's full responsibility".
Similarly, German Green Michael Bloss accused the EPP's president Manfred Weber of wanting to "dismantle" climate policy. "The EPP is hoping for a slow and painful death of the EU climate target," Bloss told Argus, calling on the EPP to find compromises with pro-European parties rather than align itself with far-right anti-European.
"I don't think the EPP was ever united around the idea of having 2040 targets at all or having the 90pc," said Bulgarian EPP and environment committee member Radan Kanev. He notes the need for the EPP to make a "really difficult" compromise to achieve a united position.
Kanev also pointed to the question of whether or not the EU should have an intermediate 2040 target as "open" since the election of Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission in July 2024.
Kanev has tabled amendments that would, if adopted, only allow use of internationally transferred mitigation outcomes (ITMOs), if credits come from third countries with industries not directly competing with strategic EU sectors. And Kanev wants the 2040 GHG target to aim for at least 78pc GHG cuts, compared with 1990 levels. An additional 12 pc reduction would be conditional upon "measurable" progress in absolute GHG reductions by "selected major economies".
