EU leaders reached no clear conclusion on the exact level of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions required for 2040 at a meeting on 23-24 October. The leaders called for the European Commission to further develop "enabling" conditions for 2040, while airing a "revision" clause.
To achieve the EU's intermediate climate target for 2040, EU leaders underlined the importance of a "revision clause", taking account of scientific evidence, technological advances and evolving challenges for the bloc's global competitiveness. The clause echoes calls by Poland for the target to be lowered if carbon capture and storage, green hydrogen and EU energy prices remain high.
"The final decision will have to be taken by environment ministers," German chancellor Friedrich Merz said. "We can only give a recommendation."
"I don't want to abandon our goals during this period," French president Emmanuel Macron said. "We need to put more protective measures in place, because we are also competing with everyone else."
Nonetheless, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk named Macron and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni as standing with Warsaw. Tusk criticised former governing party PiS for voting in favour of an intermediate target for 2040. "I will not change my mind when it comes to 2040 and those 90pc," he said, stating that Poland is "not alone". The commission in July submitted a legislative proposal for an EU-wide GHG emissions reduction target of 90pc by 2040, compared with 1990 levels.
The issue of marrying climate policy and competitiveness "remains unresolved", Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever said. He added that EU leaders will hold an "informal, informal" European Council meeting on 12 February in Alden Biesen, Belgium.
De Wever also voiced frustration at the European Parliament, which this week became "the most unlikely machine for delay" to a range of proposals for regulatory simplification. Among the proposals was a recent agreement to delete obligatory climate neutrality plans for large firms under the bloc's 2024 corporate sustainability due diligence directive.
EU leaders want the commission to pay "particular" attention to keep traditional industries competitive, listing the automotive, shipping and aviation industries, as well as energy-intensive industries including steel, metals, chemicals, cement, glass and ceramics, and pulp and paper. Leaders pushed the commission to bring forward a review of the bloc's effective phase-out of the internal combustion engine.
The long set of written conclusions further point to the importance of defining an adequate level of high-quality international credits and the "realistic" contribution of carbon removals to the bloc's overall emission reduction effort.
Without committing to an unspecified European climate target for 2040, the heads of state and government would not have been able to show up at the UN's Cop 30 climate conference in Brazil next month, German Green MP Michael Bloss said.
